Adolf Hitler’s immorality was inspired by evolutionary ethics to pursue the utopian project of biologically improving the human race, according to a new book by CSU Stanislaus History Professor Richard Weikart.
“Hitler’s Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress,” investigates the Führer’s “determination to biologically improve the human race based on evolutionary ethics,” per a CSU Stanislaus press release. Weikart’s research reveals that Hitler’s evolutionary ethic was a driving force behind nearly all Nazi policy, even Hitler’s attempted eradication of the Jewish race. Hitler thought morality was biologically inherited, so he believed eliminating what he termed “evil” Jews would bring moral progress to the world.
The book is Weikart’s fourth to be based upon his research of how social Darwinism, eugenics, and selective breeding were applied to humans to improve the species in Hitler’s Germany. Weikart was named CSU Stanislaus Outstanding Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Professor in 2005, and was featured in the 2008 Ben Stein film “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.”