Ethics

Ruse on the Darwin/Hitler Link

By Ed Brayton

Michael Ruse has an op-ed piece in the Tallahassee newspaper about arguments linking Darwin to Hitler. He makes some compelling, if obvious, arguments. He first points to the fact that any influential idea can be used by someone to justify any number of contradictory positions:

First, the message of Jesus has been used to draw contradictory inferences -- because of their faith, some Christians (starting with George Bush and Tony Blair) think the move into Iraq was morally justified, whereas others (Quakers, for a start) oppose the war bitterly because of their reading of the Christian Gospels. Likewise, Darwinism has been used to draw contradictory inferences. Bernhardi was in favor of war in Darwin's name. Herbert Spencer in the cause of evolution thought militarism was atavistic, and bad for trade. Prince Peter Kropotkin believed in a principle of mutual aid and was an anarchist. The American biologist and peace activist Vernon Kellogg hated war and thought in bad morally and bad biologically. A case could be made for saying that, by teaching Darwinism, we are teaching the virtues of free trade and small government, and encouraging our best young people to marry and have families!

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on February 11, 2008 (boomark / email).