Hitler’s Ethic and the Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress in Nazi Policy
On this episode of ID the Future, Logan Gage interviews historian Richard Weikart on his book, now out in paperback, Hitler’s Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress, and how Darwinism influenced and inspired much of Nazi ideology.
Weikart’s provocative book 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.