Final answer:
Gobineau's thoughts on racial hierarchy focused on the idea that racial purity, particularly of the 'Aryan' race, determined the superiority of a people. He contested that social institutions were less influential than racial makeup in the fate of civilizations, a theory that played into the hands of later racist ideologies.
Step-by-step explanation:
Joseph Arthur de Gobineau, a French aristocrat, was one of the first theorists to propagate ideas of racial hierarchy in the 19th century. However, unlike his contemporaries who sometimes attributed superiority to factors such as environment or civilization, Gobineau believed that racial makeup was the determinant of a nation's fate.
Gobineau's most significant work is 'An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races' (1853-1855), in which he argued that civilizations decline and fall when different races mix, a theory that later became known as the degeneration theory. He posited that the 'Aryan' race, composed of European peoples, was superior, but their greatness could be diluted by interbreeding with other races, which he believed was a major cause of societal decay.
Gobineau contested the idea that social institutions could determine a people's fate, suggesting instead that the racial quality was the overriding factor. In his view, racial intermixing led to chaos and weakened societies. This deterministic perspective laid the groundwork for later theories of racism that influenced the ideology of groups like the Nazis in the 20th century. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that Gobineau was primarily focused on the impact of race on cultural and intellectual achievements, rather than on an inherent moral or character-based superiority.