Haeckel, Ernst (1834–1919)

In Germany, Ernst Heinrich Haeckel devoted his life to defending Darwin's theory of biological evolution. He was not reluctant to consider rigorously the philosophical ramifications and theological consequences of cosmic evolution in general and human evolution in particular. As a natural philosopher, he contributed to a sound scientific understanding of the nature of humankind and its proper place in the universe (despite the unavoidable limitations of his Victorian epoch).

In Haeckel's major philosophical work, The Riddle of the Universe at the Close of the Nineteenth Century (1900), he presented a naturalist interpretation of evolution within a cosmic perspective. The dogmatic dualism of Kant and Spencer was rejected, showing Haeckel's familiarity with the chemistry, biology, anthropology, psychology, and history of philosophy during his time. He was particularly influenced by Spinoza, Goethe, and Darwin. A major zoologist and evolutionist, he is primarily remembered for his early defense of Darwinism in Germany and for establishing his “biogenetic law.” Committed to the view that both science and speculation are necessary for a sound interpretation of the cosmos, he developed his own scientific cosmology. His monistic philosophy rejected the following three theistic dogmas: a personal God, the personal immortality of the human soul, and the freedom of the individual will. Also, he rejected the concept of empty space but supported strict determinism.

Haeckel's philosophy of nature relied upon experience and inference (rational speculation), both sources of knowledge being held indispensable. It rejected anthropism, that is, that powerful and worldwide cluster of erroneous opinions that opposes the human organism to the rest of nature and represents it to be the preordained end of an organic creation, an entity essentially distinct from it, a godlike being. As a result, he rejected (a) the anthropocentric dogma, which maintains that humankind is the preordained center and aim of all terrestrial life (Haeckel advocated a cosmic perspective), (b) the anthropomorphic dogma, which maintains that God, the creator, sustainer, and ruler of the world, has human attributes and that the human being is therefore godlike instead of the other way around (Haeckel rejected all forms of theism but was sympathetic to scientific pantheism), and (c)the anthropolatric dogma, which maintains an ontological dualism and the personal immortality of the human soul (Haeckel's own view was monistic and, as such, strictly naturalistic).

Briefly, the antropistic view of the world that sprang from these three dogmas is in irreconcilable opposition to Haeckel's monistic system. Indeed, it is rejected by his new cosmological perspective. Likewise, he held that his evolutionary monism was capable of resolving the following problems: (a) the nature of matter and force, (b) the origin of motion, (c) the origin of life, (d) the order in nature, (e)the origin of simple sensation and consciousness, (f) rational thought and speech, and (g) freedom of will. Consequently, he maintained that the great law of substance remained the only simple, comprehensive, mysterious, and enigmatic riddle of the universe. He espoused the view that this law is the fundamental cosmic fact of reality establishing the eternal persistence of matter and force (this was the law that guided[Page 1121]his monistic philosophy through the complexity of the universe to a solution of world problems).

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