Edward Westermarck

Edward Westermarck (1862–1939) was a Finnish philosopher, sociologist and anthropologist, born in Helsinki into the Swedish-speaking minority. His doctoral thesis, The History of Human Marriage, published in London in 1891, made him known across Europe. He later divided his time between Helsinki, where he was professor of practical philosophy, the London School of Economics, where he was one of the first professors of sociology, and Morocco, where he spent years of fieldwork on ritual and belief. The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas argued that moral judgments rest on emotion, and the Westermarck effect, the aversion to incest among those raised together, bears his name.