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Darwin to Hitler | Richard Weikart

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Season 1
Episode
2
With
Michael Medved
Guest(s)
Richard Weikart
Duration
00:22:10
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One question that tragically never goes away is that of evil and its roots. Adolf Hitler was not a lunatic, nor did he emerge onto the stage of history from nowhere. He had a background, an intellectual milieu, that historian Richard Weikart explores in his book From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany.

A Fearless Mind

Dr. Weikart joins us today to talk about Hitler’s intellectual background. Richard is a professor of modern European history at California State University, Stanislaus, and a Senior Fellow with Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture.

Video

Show Notes

  • 02:20 | What led to interest in intellectual history of Hitler
  • 03:55 | Did Darwin speak of “evolutionary ethics”?
  • 05:30 | Mental and moral progress of the species
  • 06:40 | Did Darwin believe the races evolved separately?
  • 08:35 | What is morality if merely the result of survival?
  • 09:50 | The German milieu between Darwin and Hitler
  • 10:30 | Haeckel’s view of the races as species
  • 12:38 | The story of Ota Benga
  • 14:20 | How was Hitler influenced by the teaching of evolution?
  • 16:05 | Francis Galton and the Nazi obsession with eugenics
  • 18:10 | How does the eugenics movement translate into Nazism?

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Richard Weikart

Senior Fellow, Center for Science and Culture
Richard Weikart is Emeritus Professor of History, California State University, Stanislaus, and author of seven books, including From Darwin to Hitler, Hitler’s Ethic, The Death of Humanity, and Hitler’s Religion. His most recent book is Darwinian Racism: How Darwinism Influenced Hitler, Nazism, and White Nationalism (2022). His PhD dissertation, Socialist Darwinism, earned the biennial prize of the Forum for History of Human Sciences as best dissertation in that field. He has lectured at many universities and other venues in the US and Europe. He also has been interviewed on dozens of radio shows, podcasts, and TV, and appeared in seven documentaries, including Expelled. Some of his lectures and interviews are available on YouTube.
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Season 1

Discovery Institute