Mein Kampf

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Mein Kampf is a book dictated by Adolf Hitler. In German, the title literally translates to My Fight. It combines the element of his autobiography with his National Socialist political ideology.
In our Philosophy Class, we have read Chapter 11 of Mein Kampf. The title of this chapter is Nation and Race. This chapter deals with Hitler trying to prove that the Aryans are the most superior race of all in the universe and because of it, they need to attack on other minorities. As the superior race, they must not intermingle with others and try to stay pure as much as possible in order to preserve this superior race in Germany.

In this chapter of Mein Kampf, we see a lot of fallacies throughout the writing of Hitler. I believe that one of the biggest example of fallacies in Hitler's reasoning is in this sentence: "THERE are some truths which are so obvious that for this very reason they are not seen or at least not recognized by ordinary people." This is the first sentence of the Chapter and he is already using fallacy. This type of fallacy is called "Ad Hominem" where the arguer attacks the characteristics or beliefs of other arguments or claims without producing any argument against the claim. In this sentence, Hitler already attacks the mankind by saying that he knows of this very obvious truth that no one else can see. (The truth being that Aryans are the superior race and that in Germany, they must get rid of all the other races that defile this pure Aryan blood).

I believe that Hitler was a very intelligent man being able to create his National Socialist political ideology with such ease. However, his fallacies in his claims being made cause a lot of problems when one reads the book, Mein Kampf. Had Hitler provided examples and evidences to support his case and claims, the book would have been more effective.