Evolution in modern thought

by Ernst Haeckel, G.P. Ballin (Editor)

Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (Potsdam, February 16, 1834 - Jena, August 8, 1919), was a biologist, philosopher and German free thinker. He made known the theories of Charles Darwin in Germany and developed a theory of human origins. Haeckel was a physician and professor of comparative anatomy and was one of the first scientists who understood the psychology as a branch of physiology. He also participated in introducing some concepts of modern biology such as those of "branch" or "ecology." Haeckel also pointed to the policy as applied biology. He sketched on science ideology, Weltanschauung of monism and founded January 11, 1906 the Deutscher Monistenbund (monistic German law) in Jena. Ernst Haeckel contributed much through his writings to the dissemination of the theory of evolution. He is considered a pioneer of eugenics, although he has had himself no eugenic design because it escomptait, confident in the progress due to changes greater development and no "degeneration." Like other freethinkers organizations, union-tier German was banned in 1933 by the Nazis. Nazi ideologues used excerpts from his writings as justification for their racist theories of social Darwinism, but at the same time declared that the essential elements of the worldview of Haeckel were inconsistent with the views of National Socialism. Resume As an epoch-marking contribution to Natural History in the widest sense, we rank the picture which Darwin gave to the world of the web of life, that is to say, of the inter-relations and linkages in Nature. For the Biology of the individual--if that be not a contradiction in terms--no idea is more fundamental than that of the correlation of organs, but Darwin's most characteristic contribution was not less fundamental, --it was the idea of the correlation of organisms.

Genres: Science

378 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1917

About the author

Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (February 16, 1834 – August 9, 1919), also written von Haeckel, was an eminent German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor and artist who discovered, described and named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms, and coined many terms in biology, including anthropogeny, ecology, phylum, phylogeny, stem cell, and the kingdom Protista. Haeckel promoted and popularized Charles Darwin's work in Germany and developed the controversial recapitulation theory ("ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny") claiming that an individual organism's biological development, or ontogeny, parallels and summarizes its species' evolutionary development, or phylogeny.

The published artwork of Haeckel includes over 100 detailed, multi-colour illustrations of animals and sea creatures (see: Kunstformen der Natur, "Art Forms of Nature"). As a philosopher, Ernst Haeckel wrote Die Welträtsel (1895–1899, in English, The Riddle of the Universe, 1901), the genesis for the term "world riddle" (Welträtsel); and Freedom in Science and Teaching to support teaching evolution.

Reviews

[Tim McKay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good book just doesn't relate well past it's time.

[Frederick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is certainly a wealth of information on how the theory of evolution affected and influenced other sciences and religion in the late 19th century. Its a good place to start your understanding of modern theoretical scientific theory.