Linda Woolf wrote: > > > Louis Schmier wrote: >> the Nazis very specifically called upon science as >> justification of their views. > > They actually called upon pseudo-science as a justification for their > views. Racial hygiene and its extrapolation to issues of land, > warfare, governmental structuring, education, etc., as espoused by the > Nazis, was more ideology than science. They used the veneer of science > as part of their propaganda campaign to make their sweeping prejudices > more palatable to the general population. Moreover, destructive > ideologies alone do not result in a genocide but are rather elements > of a much larger constellation of factors. > Perhaps more effective, since Louis is a historian, would be to consnider the essentially equivalent claim that the discipline of history was responsible for the Holocaust. After all, the Nazis claimed that the Aryan right to rule the world was grounded in "history" -- a "history" that included three suns, giants ruling the earth, and a psychic Aryan race of humans that was degraded over time by cross-breeding with animals (resulting in all the non-Aryan races, especially you-know-who).
If you truly think, Louis, that anything that could authentically be called "science" had something significant to do with the Nazi's atrocities, then it seems to me, by exactly the same arguement, you would have to 'fess up to an equal share of culpability on the part of the discipline of history. Both claims are ludicrous. Regards, Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ "Part of respecting another person is taking the time to criticise his or her views." - Melissa Lane, in a /Guardian/ obituary for philosopher Peter Lipton ================================= --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
