Did Darwinism Smooth the Way for Nazi Ideology?


>>From Darwin to Hitler

Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany
An interesting new book by Richard Weikart

I might not have encountered it all, were it not for an email sent by
the author, or probably his publisher--for which I am grateful. I
checked 80 nearby libraries, public and university, before buying it
from Amazon. How any university could fail to procure this book defies
imagination. ...Or does it? Students should request their libraries
buy this book. It is an important contribution to the discussion.

In his Introduction, Mr. Weikart writes: "...I discovered that many
German eugenicists wrote essays and passages in their books on how to
apply Darwinism to ethics. I had not initially intended eugenics to
play an important part in this study, but I could not avoid it..."

He continues, "...the more I read by and about Hitler, the more I
became convinced that there were significant historical connections
between Darwinism and Hitler's ideology. ...No matter how crooked the
road was from Darwin to Hitler, clearly Darwinism and eugenics smoothed
the path for Nazi ideology, especially for the Nazi stress on
expansion, war, racial struggle, and racial extermination."

Later in his Introduction, Mr. Weikart writes: "In order to rescue
Darwinian science from the taint of Nazism, however, some historians
assert that Hitler's views were pseudo-scientific or eccentric, or they
refer to his views of Darwinism as crude or vulgar." Mr. Weikart
quotes Brigitte Hamann on this: "Almost all of the theories Hitler
preferred have in common that they were not in agreement with academic
science but were the products of idiosyncratic thought processes of
private scholars who were full of contempt for established scientists,
who hardly ever accept them either, and for good reason."

Mr. Weikart takes issue with that argument: "On the contrary, however,
many recent studies about Nazi science, especially those relating to
biology, medical science, and eugenics, demonstrate that many
mainstream scientists, professors, and physicians--including those
identifying with the political Left--upheld views about Darwinism and
eugenics quite similar to Hitler's."

"In philosophical terms," Weikart writes, "Darwinism was a necessary,
but not a sufficient, cause for Nazi ideology. But however logical or
illogical the connections are between Darwinism and Nazism,
historically the connections are there and they cannot be wished away."

Why is it, then, only in Germany did Darwinian devaluing of human life
result in Holocaust? "Nowhere did [Darwinian devaluation of human
life] reach the catastrophic level of Germany...since only in Germany
did a dictator rule with the power to pursue his radical agenda under
the cover of war."

Weikart then goes on to demonstrate that Hitler's philosophy was more
shaped by Darwinism than by naturalism, a view that flies in the face
of much popular thinking. Mr. Weikart writes: "I would assert that
without Darwinism, materialism would still have increased during the
late nineteenth century, but it would have been far less persuasive and
thus would have gained fewer adherents than it actually did."

The point of this short article is not to provide lengthy quotes from
Mr. Weikart's book (though that might seem the case), nor is even
intended to be a review of the work (I will leave that to others). I
want only to draw attention to the book, and to highly recommend it;
especially Chapter Six, which is entitled: "The Science of Racial
Inequality." In it Mr. Weikart writes: "While racism might have
intensified in the late nineteenth century as a justification for
European imperialism with our without Darwinism, it is clear that
Darwinism played a key role in the rhetoric of racism."

Other especially good chapters include: "The Specter of Inferiority,"
"Controlling Reproduction," and "Racial Struggle and Extermination."
....All pointing to a connection between Darwinism and Nazi Germany;
sometimes not a direct connection, but a connection nonetheless.

Weikart concludes: "Darwinism by itself did not produce the Holocaust,
but without Darwinism, especially in its social Darwinist and eugenics
permutations, neither Hitler nor his Nazi followers would have had the
necessary scientific underpinnings to convince themselves and their
collaborators that one of the world's greatest atrocities was really
morally praiseworthy. Darwinism--or at least some naturalistic
interpretations of Darwinism--succeeded in turning morality on its
head."


http://www.goodschools.com/Weikart.htm

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