Victor said:
What was his philosophical worldview?
I used to hear for a long time that he was a professed Christian and then later in college a professor said something else. I haven't gone back recently to research it and was curious.
I know this might not be a satisfactory answer, Victor, but I strongly believe that his real worldview is best described as "probable paranoid psychotic". If you're familiar with the symptoms of psychosis then you can find a lot of similarities between Hitler's beliefs, his actions, and that tragic illness. Ideas were probably not nearly as important to him as his hatreds, his always simmering rage, his psychotic paranoia, his self-righteousness, his self-pity, and his grandiose sense of personal destiny.
Having said all that, one source of Hitler's ideas that I don't think has been brought up yet in this thread is his extensive reading in political history. He was intimately familiar with European history, and had a strong tendency to "take it personally". That is, he could recall a 17th century diplomatic insult to the German nation and feel outrage at it. Probably much more than science ever influenced his thinking, he was influenced by what he knew of history filtered through the lens of his paranoid psychosis.
In the most general sense of world view, Hitler, of course, usually thought of people as little more than members of races, folk, nationalities, etc. I suspect he was more oriented to abstract, than to concrete people. Unfortunately for everyone, his views of people were, once again, filtered through the lens of his paranoia psychosis. For instance: he was a ready, willing believer in plots and conspiracies, such as the alleged Jewish conspiracy.
He actually had some contempt even for Germans, of all things! He on at least one ocassion refered to the German folk as "mostly sh!t." His immense self-pity comes out again and again. He thought of himself as not only a huge turning point in history, but also as an exceptionly kind and decent man who was forced again and again by evil others to be ruthless. Towards the end of the war, he announced to aides that his great mistake had been to be "too kind to my generals", and that "kindness is my greatest character flaw." In general, he consistently saw himself as a victim. When he was feeling good, he managed to see all Germans as victims like him. When he was feeling bad, even the Germans had victimized him, to his thinking. Hitler died believing he had been unjustly betrayed by nearly everyone. His capacity for self-pity was of increditable proportions. Again, there might have been a connection between that and his paranoia.
Basically, I think Hitler was more influenced by his own insanity than by any world view. Or, perhaps insanity was his world view. What do you think, Victor?
