Paul Lawrence Farber, A review of: Richard Weikart, From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany (2005)

In an often-cited letter written to Charles Darwin on Christmas Eve Day in 1859, Adam
> Sedgwick expressed his concern about the moral implications of Darwin's newly published<br> book, On the Origin of Species. Sedgwick noted that were it possible to break the link
> between natural history and natural theology, humankind would experience a brutalizing<br> degradation. Since then opponents of the theory of evolution have used this criticism
> repeatedly, and it continues to be a central point in contemporary critiques of modern<br> science, evolutionary biology, and secular worldviews. Once the link with the
> sacredsupernatural is broken, all things are permissible (as Dostoyevsky warned). Richard
> Weikart presents a variation of this critique of Darwin in his new book, From Darwin to<br> Hitler. The central argument that informs his narrative is that Darwin's naturalism
> devalued human life and made possible the excesses of the Nazi regime.<p>

Like other attempts to tar Darwin with all of the problems of modernity, Weikart's
> suffers from conceptual flaws that detract from his book, which contains some interesting<br> material on the German eugenics movement, popular Darwinism in Germany, and German
> evolutionary ethics. Weikart is critical of Daniel Gasman's attempt to link Haeckel and<br> Nazi ideology, and he notes that all Darwinians were not eugenicists, all eugenicists were
> not Darwinians, and all Nazis were not Darwinians. Yet, he insists that the critical moral<br> breakdown that permitted some German eugenicists to espouse euthanasia, and ultimately
> racial extermination, was the Darwinian theory that presented human history in<br> naturalistic terms, not as part of a divine drama. But it is a very long way from
> barnacles to the death camps. Weikart sidesteps the issue that German materialism, as<br> reflected by Ludwig Büchner (1855), was far more radical and relied more on experimental
> physiology than natural history for its scientific legitimacy. Similarly, he<br> overemphasizes the power of ideas in driving history. Intellectual historians have come to
> realize that economic forces, social structures, and political conflicts play key roles in<br> historical developments.

Although Weikart mentions various individuals outside the German speaking areas, he
> doesn't explore the comparative aspects of his story. Evolution and eugenics were also<br> popular in the United States and Britain, Russia and Scandinavia. That interest, and the
> secular forces in those countries, did not lead to the enactment and enforcement of social<br> policies we associate with the Racial Hygiene movement in Nazi Germany. Why not? And, has
> a concept of the sacred been an effective shield against the taking of human life? The<br> Thirty Year's War was as barbaric an event as Western history has experienced, and
> religion was not lacking at the time. Modern history is not lacking in examples of<br> religiously inspired killing. I suspect that few suicide bombers have Darwin fishes on
> their bumpers or in their hearts.<p>

Weikart's book will comfort those who believe that the materialism and naturalism
> characteristic of contemporary science need to be rejected in favor of a more religious<br> perspective, be it Intelligent Design or strict Creationism. It ignores the many syntheses
> that have been crafted by deeply religious individuals who have embraced modern science,<br> and presents a flawed narrative along the lines of "for want of a nail, a kingdom was
> lost.&quot; The great figures in Western Science, for example Copernicus, Darwin, Einstein,<br> and Freud, have all been the subject of mythmaking as well as demonizing. Historians of
> science spend a lot of time writing and teaching to present a more balanced account.<br> Weikart's book, unfortunately, is likely to spawn more urban myths about Darwin that
> will have to be addressed.<p>