Sunday, April 17, 2005
More on Darwin and Hitler
Red State Rabble has been involved in a long-running debate with Richard Weikart over whether evolutionary theory is responsible for Nazi ideology. Now, Robert Richards, the Morris Fishbein Professor in the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Chicago, has addressed the topic in this year’s Nora and Edward Ryerson Lecture.
Richards' lecture was titled “The Narrative Structure of Moral Judgments in History: Evolution and Nazi Biology.”
Richards, a specialist in evolutionary philosophy, has been concerned with the nature of moral judgment for some time, he says. In his lecture, he explained that he was led to the specific topic of evolution and Nazism after reading several historians’ accounts of the connection between evolutionary theory and Nazi war crimes.
Richards concluded that it could only be “tendentious” and “dogmatic” to condemn Darwin for Nazism, although Richards confessed that he still has not made up his mind on Haeckel.
Read a complete account of Richards' lecture by Usman Ahmed in the Chicago Maroon.
Richards' lecture was titled “The Narrative Structure of Moral Judgments in History: Evolution and Nazi Biology.”
Richards, a specialist in evolutionary philosophy, has been concerned with the nature of moral judgment for some time, he says. In his lecture, he explained that he was led to the specific topic of evolution and Nazism after reading several historians’ accounts of the connection between evolutionary theory and Nazi war crimes.
Richards concluded that it could only be “tendentious” and “dogmatic” to condemn Darwin for Nazism, although Richards confessed that he still has not made up his mind on Haeckel.
Read a complete account of Richards' lecture by Usman Ahmed in the Chicago Maroon.
