Friday, January 4, 2008
From Darwin to Hitler
"In his book, From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany (2004), Richard Weikart explains the revolutionary impact Darwinism had on ethics and morality. Darwinism played a key role in the rise not only of eugenics (a movement wanting to control human reproduction to improve the human species), but also on euthanasia, infanticide, abortion, and racial extermination. This was especially important in Germany, since Hitler built his view of ethics on Darwinian principles. Series: "Voices""
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Here is what Hitler thought of the idea that man had descended from apes
From Hitler's Tischgespraeche for 1942 'Woher nehmen wir das Recht zu glauben, der Mensch sei nicht von Uranfaengen das gewesen , was er heute ist? Der Blick in die Natur zeigt uns, dass im Bereich der Pflanzen und Tiere Veraenderungen und Weiterbildungen vorkommen. Aber nirgends zeigt sich innherhalb einer Gattung eine Entwicklung von der Weite des Sprungs, den der Mensch gemacht haben muesste, sollte er sich aus einem affenartigen Zustand zu dem, was er ist, fortgebildet haben.'
stenographer.
'From where do we get the right to believe that man was not from the very beginning what he is today.
A glance in Nature shows us , that changes and developments happen in the realm of plants and animals. But nowhere do we see inside a kind, a development of the size of the leap that Man must have made, if he supposedly has advanced from an ape-like condition to what he is' (now)
And in the entry for 27 February 1942 , Hitler says 'Das, was der Mensch von dem Tier voraushat, der veilleicht wunderbarste Beweis fuer die Ueberlegenheit des Menschen ist, dass er begriffen hat, dass es eine Schoepferkraft geben muss.'
Translated :-
'That which man has over the animals is, the possibly mose wonderful proof of the superiority of mankind is, that he has understood, that there must be a Creative Power'
I don’t know too much about the man outside you can’t wear his moustache and that he was a mass murder. Are his words more relevant than his actions? I am more interested in the way this theoretical science ‘evolution’ has shaped mans thinking and lifestyle in his world. Often it is stressed the absence of man is better over the idea of coexisting.
If you wish to discuss the way evolutionary theory shaped Hitler's views and actions, then first, it seems to me that whether or not Hitler even accepted evolution is relevant to deciding how much he was influenced by evolutionary theory. Furthermore, evolutionary theory implies that there is variation in all populations, so that there will be no trait common to all members of one race or ethnic group (e.g. Jews) but absent from all members of another race or group (e.g. "Aryans") on which one could base a claim of racial inferiority or superiority. Furthermore, the very possibility of "inferiority" or "superiority" is suspect in evolutionary theory; what is fitter in one environment is less fit in another, and irrelevant in a third. These are essential points of evolutionary theory, and in these respects, racism is quite "unDarwinian," and Hitler seems to have been very little influenced by the actual theory of evolution.
-- Steven J.
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