Is there a link between Darwinism and Nazism? Dan brought this up earlier and at first I thought the point was quite silly.
Now? Not so sure.
Check out Richard Weikart’s article at the American Spectator.
Posted by: thebrooks | May 15, 2008
Darwinism and Nazism
Responses
Hmmm,
Weikart can’t even provide a citation for his second point, and the only other “Darwinist” he can name is this Haeckel guy.
If we are to go back to what Weikart says, by what means did the Nazis figure out that Jews were evolutionary inferiors? If they were so motivated by science shouldn’t they have made some research?
Hitler was an anti-Semite first though, and anything that Nazi “scientists” claimed about the Jews were nothing but a post-hoc explanation. As part of this process, evolutionary arguments (along with religious, nationalist, and every other sort) were twisted to fit the Nazi program.
The way that the Nazis depicted the Jews was so contradictory and stupid (money-grubbing bankers who were also communists?) that it’s hard to think that they themselves took their arguments seriously. There was an a priori commitment to Jew-hating and any justification was used.
Weikart should also remember that discussions on origins must focus on, well, origins, not to how someone used this theory or that belief to justify some atrocity or another.
By: Dan on May 15, 2008
at 10:16 pm
Dan,
Weikart is not writing an academic article with footnotes. If you want citations for his work you would have to read his book. He does list it as the source to get further information about his ideas.
As for the Jews being inferior, Weikart never claims that this is due to Darwinism. In fact, he claims that there is no connection between anti-semitism in particular and Darwinism.
One must not assume that the propaganda issued by the Nazi party was intended to express their true beliefs. Nor should one expect it to be consistent. It was propaganda after all. Its sole purpose was to kill Jews, not tell the world the reason why they wanted to kill them!
Finally, Weikart is not discussing origins. He is discussing Darwinism. Darwinism is not merely science, but contains an ideology. He is attacking that ideology. I thought that was rather clear.
By: Matthew on May 16, 2008
at 11:55 am
