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The Biology of Evil

Ken Gemes

Every chapter in the course, with links to the moment it begins in the video and in the transcript. For topics across all courses, see the Topic Index.

Lecture 1 The Idea of “Bad Blood”

Course Introduction and Overview
▶︎ 0:01 transcript ↗︎
Borges and the Power of Metaphors
▶︎ 0:20 transcript ↗︎
The Lost Rhetoric of Degeneration
▶︎ 0:52 transcript ↗︎
Enlightenment View: Evil as Error
▶︎ 1:21 transcript ↗︎
Evil Moves to the Body: Infection Logic
▶︎ 2:28 transcript ↗︎
The Freudian Presumption: The Unconscious
▶︎ 4:39 transcript ↗︎
The Hegelian Presumption: Meaning in Context
▶︎ 6:58 transcript ↗︎
Why We Need Genealogy of Our Words
▶︎ 9:39 transcript ↗︎
Ancient Biological Accounts of Difference
▶︎ 10:54 transcript ↗︎
Aristotle's Gendered Hierarchies
▶︎ 13:33 transcript ↗︎
Medieval Views on Women and Humanity
▶︎ 18:25 transcript ↗︎
Manichean vs Gnostic Models of Evil
▶︎ 21:37 transcript ↗︎
Medieval Biological Anti-Semitism
▶︎ 25:00 transcript ↗︎
Luther's Turn From Ally to Enemy
▶︎ 27:31 transcript ↗︎
Subversion of Language and Identity
▶︎ 32:33 transcript ↗︎
The Economy of Liquids and Formlessness
▶︎ 37:53 transcript ↗︎
Preview: The 19th Century Fear of Infection
▶︎ 41:16 transcript ↗︎

Lecture 2 Why Progress Was Feared

Evil by Another Name: Degeneration Theory
▶︎ 0:00 transcript ↗︎
Pinel and the Birth of Modern Psychiatry
▶︎ 1:38 transcript ↗︎
Morel: The Father of Degeneration Theory
▶︎ 2:34 transcript ↗︎
Kantian Norms of Rational Thought
▶︎ 6:10 transcript ↗︎
Atavism and Recapitulation Theory
▶︎ 7:45 transcript ↗︎
Carl Vogt's Craniology and Racial Hierarchy
▶︎ 9:42 transcript ↗︎
Women as Biologically Inferior: Vogt's Claims
▶︎ 11:40 transcript ↗︎
Darwin's Descent of Man and the Fear of Reversion
▶︎ 13:57 transcript ↗︎
Lamarckism vs. Darwinism on Inheritance
▶︎ 18:28 transcript ↗︎
The Purple Passage: Civilization Breeds Weakness
▶︎ 20:24 transcript ↗︎
Galton and the Birth of Eugenics
▶︎ 22:33 transcript ↗︎
Why Darwin Was Not a Degenerationist
▶︎ 26:06 transcript ↗︎
American Eugenics and Immigration Law
▶︎ 28:06 transcript ↗︎
The Passing of the Great Race
▶︎ 31:02 transcript ↗︎
Roosevelt and Mainstream Eugenics
▶︎ 32:50 transcript ↗︎
Progress Is Not Inevitable
▶︎ 33:46 transcript ↗︎
Darwin on Women's Intellectual Capacity
▶︎ 35:37 transcript ↗︎
Darwin's Defense of Compassion and Optimism
▶︎ 38:03 transcript ↗︎
Preview: Lombroso and Nordau
▶︎ 42:31 transcript ↗︎

Lecture 3 The Logic of Infection

Darwin and the Fear of Going Backwards
▶︎ 0:00 transcript ↗︎
The Born Criminal as Evolutionary Throwback
▶︎ 1:16 transcript ↗︎
Cranial Measurements and Gender Hierarchies
▶︎ 3:57 transcript ↗︎
Kant's Philosophy Behind Degeneration Theory
▶︎ 4:41 transcript ↗︎
Women as Primitive and the Crime Paradox
▶︎ 5:59 transcript ↗︎
The Hidden Criminal Inside Every Woman
▶︎ 8:12 transcript ↗︎
Genius as a Freakish Form of Atavism
▶︎ 12:12 transcript ↗︎
Nordau's Book That Called Geniuses Degenerate
▶︎ 14:14 transcript ↗︎
Degeneracy as Infection Through the Blood
▶︎ 16:33 transcript ↗︎
Middle-Class Fear of the Urban Poor
▶︎ 18:22 transcript ↗︎
Degenerates as Parasites Who Will Perish
▶︎ 20:32 transcript ↗︎
Weininger's Extreme Split of Reason and Body
▶︎ 22:10 transcript ↗︎
Everyone Is Part Male and Part Female
▶︎ 24:38 transcript ↗︎
Women Without Soul, Language, or Mind
▶︎ 27:20 transcript ↗︎
The Equation of Jews and Women as Parasites
▶︎ 34:41 transcript ↗︎
Anti-Semitism as Projection of Self-Hatred
▶︎ 42:48 transcript ↗︎
The Final Solution: Stop All Procreation
▶︎ 44:23 transcript ↗︎

Lecture 4 Dracula and the Fear of Degeneration

Degeneration Theory Enters the Novel
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Dracula as Degenerationist Literature
▶︎ 1:14 transcript ↗︎
Extermination Rhetoric and the Degenerate
▶︎ 3:08 transcript ↗︎
Dracula as Exotic Eastern Atavistic Figure
▶︎ 4:59 transcript ↗︎
The Feminized Criminal With a Child's Brain
▶︎ 6:39 transcript ↗︎
Antisemitic Coding in Dracula
▶︎ 8:35 transcript ↗︎
Whitechapel, Jack the Ripper, and Jewish Caricature
▶︎ 11:40 transcript ↗︎
The Smell of the Devil and Old Jerusalem
▶︎ 13:53 transcript ↗︎
Fear of the New Woman in Dracula
▶︎ 15:22 transcript ↗︎
Gender Mixing and Domesticity as Resolution
▶︎ 17:59 transcript ↗︎
Homoerotic Dimensions of the Vampire
▶︎ 20:48 transcript ↗︎
Decadence versus Degeneration
▶︎ 21:39 transcript ↗︎
Introducing Baudelaire as a Hero
▶︎ 23:20 transcript ↗︎
Rejecting the Separation of Good and Evil
▶︎ 24:22 transcript ↗︎
Flowers of Evil and the Hypocrite Reader
▶︎ 26:03 transcript ↗︎
Baudelaire Classified as a Paradigm Degenerate
▶︎ 28:56 transcript ↗︎
France's Decline and the Rise of Decadence
▶︎ 30:10 transcript ↗︎
Poetry of Corruption, Beauty, and Gender
▶︎ 32:54 transcript ↗︎
The Vampire at My Own Veins
▶︎ 36:26 transcript ↗︎
Eros Rules Over Reason
▶︎ 39:44 transcript ↗︎
Universal Infection and Inescapable Evil
▶︎ 41:37 transcript ↗︎

Lecture 5 Marx, Wagner, and Antisemitism

Degenerationist Metaphors and the Survival Paradox
▶︎ 0:01 transcript ↗︎
The Paradox of Atavistic Yet Hyper-Modern
▶︎ 1:40 transcript ↗︎
Emancipation and the Rise of 19th Century Backlash
▶︎ 2:55 transcript ↗︎
The Protocols of Zion and Henry Ford
▶︎ 4:50 transcript ↗︎
Jews as Symbols of Modernity and Resentment
▶︎ 7:00 transcript ↗︎
Judaism as Religion or Mental Type?
▶︎ 8:04 transcript ↗︎
Judaism in Music: Language and Foreignness
▶︎ 9:45 transcript ↗︎
The Claim of Jewish Incapacity for Creativity
▶︎ 12:25 transcript ↗︎
Atavism, Materialism, and Spiritual Incapacity
▶︎ 16:00 transcript ↗︎
Vampiric and Parasitic Imagery
▶︎ 17:50 transcript ↗︎
Cultural Infection and the Worm Metaphor
▶︎ 20:00 transcript ↗︎
The Problem of Heinrich Heine
▶︎ 23:07 transcript ↗︎
On the Jewish Question: Context and Framework
▶︎ 24:17 transcript ↗︎
Political vs. Human Emancipation
▶︎ 26:36 transcript ↗︎
Egoism, Individualism, and the Limits of Rights
▶︎ 30:12 transcript ↗︎
Judaism as Egoism and Materialism
▶︎ 35:30 transcript ↗︎
Christianity as Infected Judaism
▶︎ 39:00 transcript ↗︎
Emancipation from Materialism as the Goal
▶︎ 42:00 transcript ↗︎

Lecture 6 Why Nietzsche Rejected Purity

Introduction to Degeneration Theory
▶︎ 0:00 transcript ↗︎
A Philosopher Who Talked About Degeneration
▶︎ 0:47 transcript ↗︎
The Nazi Appropriation and Its Flat Reading
▶︎ 1:31 transcript ↗︎
Antisemitism in Context: Political vs Personal
▶︎ 2:30 transcript ↗︎
The Case for a Flat Degenerationist Reading
▶︎ 5:17 transcript ↗︎
Ecce Homo and the Art of Misdirection
▶︎ 9:56 transcript ↗︎
Master Morality: Good vs Bad
▶︎ 11:59 transcript ↗︎
Slave Morality and the Inversion of Values
▶︎ 15:06 transcript ↗︎
Jewish Creativity Against Degenerationist Tropes
▶︎ 17:01 transcript ↗︎
The Real Objection: Repudiation of Human Drives
▶︎ 19:50 transcript ↗︎
Christianity's Core Is Morality, Not Metaphysics
▶︎ 21:27 transcript ↗︎
Did the Jews Strategically Invent Christianity?
▶︎ 24:15 transcript ↗︎
Subverting German Identity: 'You Are the Jews'
▶︎ 26:29 transcript ↗︎
Affective Rhetoric and the Dark Workshop
▶︎ 28:23 transcript ↗︎
Beyond Manichaeism: Reconciling Two Moralities
▶︎ 30:59 transcript ↗︎
Ennoblement Through Degeneration
▶︎ 35:34 transcript ↗︎
Health as Incorporation, Not Elimination
▶︎ 40:13 transcript ↗︎

Lecture 7 Freud’s Case Against “Bad Blood”

Introduction to Freud and Degeneration Theory
▶︎ 0:00 transcript ↗︎
Rejecting Degeneration Through Universalism
▶︎ 1:35 transcript ↗︎
Biographical Background and Early Career
▶︎ 5:13 transcript ↗︎
Charcot, Hypnosis, and Physical Symptoms
▶︎ 6:53 transcript ↗︎
Studies in Hysteria and the Trauma Model
▶︎ 8:04 transcript ↗︎
The Seduction Theory and Its Abandonment
▶︎ 11:54 transcript ↗︎
The Oedipal Complex and Psychosexual Development
▶︎ 14:51 transcript ↗︎
Degeneration Theory in Freud's Early Writings
▶︎ 15:35 transcript ↗︎
Women as Polymorphously Perverse
▶︎ 18:43 transcript ↗︎
Castration Anxiety and Homosexuality Explained
▶︎ 20:49 transcript ↗︎
Introjection, the Super-Ego, and the Mind's Structure
▶︎ 23:30 transcript ↗︎
Women's Moral Development and the Weaker Super-Ego
▶︎ 27:00 transcript ↗︎
Moses and Monotheism: Freud on the Jews
▶︎ 30:15 transcript ↗︎
Projection Explains Anti-Semitism and Misogyny
▶︎ 33:23 transcript ↗︎
Schreber, Introjection, and Projection
▶︎ 37:26 transcript ↗︎
Kristeva's Theory of Hostility to Foreigners
▶︎ 41:23 transcript ↗︎
Freud's Essay on the Uncanny
▶︎ 48:12 transcript ↗︎
Doubles, Automata, and Uncanny Opposites
▶︎ 53:20 transcript ↗︎
Health as Balance: Freud Meets Nietzsche
▶︎ 58:23 transcript ↗︎

Lecture 8 The Fatal Literalization of Metaphor

Degeneration as an Enabling Condition
▶︎ 0:01 transcript ↗︎
Mein Kampf and Literalized Metaphors
▶︎ 1:47 transcript ↗︎
The Beer Hall Putsch and Mein Kampf's Origins
▶︎ 3:32 transcript ↗︎
The 1937 Degenerate Art Exhibition
▶︎ 4:33 transcript ↗︎
Nordau's Influence on the Art Program
▶︎ 6:54 transcript ↗︎
The 1933 Sterilization Law
▶︎ 8:12 transcript ↗︎
American Origins of Sterilization Laws
▶︎ 9:30 transcript ↗︎
Buck v. Bell and Forced Sterilization
▶︎ 10:36 transcript ↗︎
Nuremberg Trials and the Eugenics Defense
▶︎ 12:33 transcript ↗︎
Churchill's Support for Eugenics
▶︎ 13:53 transcript ↗︎
Origins of Anti-Semitism: Vienna and Beyond
▶︎ 15:34 transcript ↗︎
Henry Ford, Madison Grant, and the Parasite
▶︎ 19:56 transcript ↗︎
The Nazi Manifesto: Blood and Spirit
▶︎ 21:55 transcript ↗︎
Mein Kampf: Poison and Unnatural Selection
▶︎ 23:41 transcript ↗︎
Jews as Lacking Culture and Originality
▶︎ 26:24 transcript ↗︎
The Parasite, Vampire, and Eternal Wanderer
▶︎ 30:58 transcript ↗︎
Syphilis, Sexual Perversion, and Contamination
▶︎ 34:42 transcript ↗︎
Concealment and the Uncanny Other
▶︎ 37:11 transcript ↗︎
Purity of Blood and Vienna as Mongrel City
▶︎ 37:56 transcript ↗︎
Degeneration's Legacy and Modern Persistence
▶︎ 39:03 transcript ↗︎