Darwin to Hitler | Richard Weikart
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?