Hitler's Ethic and the Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress in Nazi Policy

Episode 337 August 31, 2009 00:21:45
Hitler's Ethic and the Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress in Nazi Policy
Intelligent Design the Future
Hitler's Ethic and the Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress in Nazi Policy

Aug 31 2009 | 00:21:45

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Show Notes

On this episode of ID the Future, Logan Gage interviews historian Richard Weikart on his new book, Hitler's Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress, and how Darwinism influenced and inspired much of Nazi ideology.

Weikart's provocative book, out tomorrow, argues that Hitler's immorality was not the result of ignoring or rejecting ethics, but rather came from embracing a coherent — albeit pernicious — ethic of improving the human race through "evolutionary progress." Directly inspired by Darwin's theory of evolution, this ethic underlay or influenced almost every major feature of Nazi policy: eugenics (i.e., measures to improved human heredity, including compulsory sterilization), euthanasia, racism, population expansion, offensive warfare, and racial extermination. By embracing this particular brand of ethics, Hitler perpetrated much greater evil than he would have had he been merely opportunistic or amoral.

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