From Darwin to Hitler
Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany
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Palgrave
Due/Published
March 2006, 328 pages,
paper
ISBN
140397201X
From Darwin to Hitler elucidates the revolutionary impact Darwinism had on ethics and morality throughout history. This book is a provocative yet balanced work that addresses a wide range of topics, from the value of human life to sexual mortality, to racial extermination. "Richard Weikart's outstanding book shows in sober and convincing detail how Darwinist thinkers in Germany had developed an amoral attitude to human society by the time of the First World War, in which the supposed good of the race was applied as the sole criterion of public policy and 'racial hygiene'. Without over-simplifying the lines that connected this body of thought to Hitler, he demonstrates with chilling clarity how policies such as infanticide, assisted suicide, marriage prohibitions and much else were being proposed for those considered racially or eugenically inferior by a variety of Darwinist writers and scientists, providing Hitler and the Nazis with a scientific justification for the policies they pursued once they came to power."--Richard Evans, University of Cambridge "Taking a middle ground between scholars on both sides, Richard Weikart has traveled far and wide to bring together a broad range of important programs, institutions, and thinkers who shaped the social and political ramification of Darwinian thought in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Germany. Many of the voices Weikart conveys appear here in English for the first time."--Kevin Repp, Yale University Contents Introduction Part I: Laying New Foundations for Ethics
The Origins of Morality and the Rise of Relativism
Evolutionary Progress as the Highest Good
Organizing Evolutionary Ethics Part II: Devaluing Human Life
The Value of Death
The Specter of Inferiority: Devaluing the Disabled
The Science of Racial Inequality Part III: Eliminating the "Inferior Ones"
Controlling Reproduction: Redefining Sexual Morality
Killing the Unfit
War and Peace
Racial Struggle and Extermination Part IV: Impacts
Hitler's Ethics Conclusion |
