Haeckel, Ernst

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THE BOUNDARIES OF NATURAL SCIENCE/BY ERNST HAECKEL.THE meeting of German naturalists and physicians of 1913 maylook back more proudly than ever before upon the wonderfulresults accomplished by natural science in the last half century. Ineach one of its many sections there was opportunity to admire themarvelous immensity of the progress recently attained and to em-phasize its practical significance for our modern culture. But dis-regarding all the separate brilliant results of the particular sciencesand rising to the most comprehensive survey of the magnificentwhole, the most gratifying result of all, indeed, remains the con-viction that the study of nature has gradually taken by storm theentire domain of the human intellect, that all true "science" in thelast analysis is natural science.To be sure this legitimate claim is still opposed even to-dayin large circles as an unwarranted presumption ; the so-called mentalsciences are opposed to the natural sciences as being of equal, orrather of superior, value. But unprejudiced comparison and criticalinvestigation (free from all traditional dogmas) convince us thatall branches of the former should be classified in the all-embracingdomain of the latter. History in its broader sense—universal his-tory as well as the history of the nations, the history of the earthand natural history—all are branches of the general theory of evolu-tion. The philological sciences, comparative study of languagesand psychology, are parts of physiology. Philosophy as the proud"queen of the sciences," gathering all general results of the specialbranches into the common focus of its "world-conception," has last-ing value only as it is the monistic philosophy of nature. The an-* On the occasion of the triennial meeting of naturalists at Vienna Pro-fessor Haeckel published this brief essay in the Neue Freie Presse in a some-what abbreviated form. With the author's permission this was republishedin the Neue Weltanschauung of October 1913, including the parts which hadbeen previously omitted. From this more complete form it is here translatedinto EngHsh by Lydia G. Robinson.70 THE OPEN COUftT.cient traditional antitheses of spirit and body, energy and matter,psyche and physis, fuse into its unified concept of substance.The opposition which our firmly established unitary world-conception—"naturalistic monism"—still meets constantly from con-THE BOUNDARIES OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 71servative and clerical circles, rests particularly upon the old vitalism,upon the dualistic hypothesis that a special life force (vis vitalis)creates the phenomena peculiar to organic life independently ofuniversally prevailing physical laws.This "anthropistic romance" leads to the poetical fiction of a"personal God" who as creator, preserver and ruler of the worldis supposed consciously to direct the entire course of its developmentaccording to a definite aim and purpose.As much as sixty years ago this old misleading vitalism wasthoroughly refuted, and since then our modern evolution theoryhas completely removed the ground from beneath its feet. When,nevertheless, a new form of the same thing, the so-called neo-vitalism, succeeds in again presenting its claims, this anachronismis explained on the one hand by the deficient biological educationof its representatives and on the other hand by the deeply rootedprimeval instinct of the speculating human mind toward the mys-terious and occult. This is particularly true of the mystical con-ception of consciousness, a partial phenomenon in the psychic life ofman and the higher animals, in which even some prominent natural-ists perceive an impassable boundary to our knowledge of nature.The advanced comparative and genetic psychology of modern timeshas led us to the conviction that the most highly developed humanconsciousness does not owe its origin to any supernatural "spirit,"but like all other psychic activities represents the work performedby the neurons, the ganglion-cells in the cortex of our cerebrum.When now in spite of this fact the philosophy of the dualisticschool speaks of a special universal consciousness (Weltbezvusstsein)this error arises from the unjustified transference of human psychicactivities to the realm of the universe as a whole. Our monisticnatural philosophy has convinced us that "a spirit in all thingsdwells," and that the unitary and all-comprehensive "God-nature"does not require human personification. Although this naturalmonistic view of the world was a clearly formed conception in theminds of the prominent thinkers of antiquity, it has attained afirmer empirical foundation through the magnificent progress madein the knowledge of nature, and especially in the modern theory ofevolution, in the last half-century.At the head of this marvelous progress stands the final solutionof the great "problem of man," the clear scientific answer to theworld-old questions, Whence? Whither? Why? On the strengthof its three great documents, paleontology, comparative anatomyan ontogeny, the theory of descent has convinced us that man is72 THE OPEN COURT.the most highly developed mammal ; that like the vertebrates he hasdeveloped in the course of many millions of years from a long lineHAECKEL IN 1905.of animal ancestors. This has now become a "historical fact." Hu-man ontogeny has taught us that every single human being, likeevery other vertebrate, takes its origin from a single simple cell.THE BOUNDARIES OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 73The wonderful series of forms which this one-celled germ passesthrough until its full completion as a complex human organism is abrief repetition (dependent on the laws of heredity and adaptation)of the long and wonderful line of ancestors which our animal pro-genitors have passed through in the course of many millions of years.In other words, "the history of the germ is a short sketch of thehistory of the race." This "biogenetic principle" is no airy hypoth-esis but a clear theory firmly established by facts.The great biologist who was the first fearlessly and with clearconsciousness to consummate this important solution of the problemof man referred to it in 1863 with good reason as "the question ofall questions." Since now exactly fifty years have passed sincethis world-moving discovery it is certainly fitting that the greatmeeting of naturalists in Vienna should at the same time celebrateproudly and gratefully this "jubilee of anthropology." This is moreimportant and of greater consequence than all the brilliant festivalstaken together which are being celebrated in this year of manyjubilees. For the previous boundaries of natural science have nowfallen ; its dominion has become extended thereby over the wholerealm of man's intellectual life. Nature is everything, and thereforeall true science is also at bottom "natural science.""Pure reason" sees at first in this advance in modern naturalscience only the most important reform of the theoretical world-conception, but sooner or later it must also involve a correspondingpractical reform in our conduct of life. The deplorable state inwhich traditional dualism to-day still holds captive our social andethical, our political and pedagogical conditions, will give placemore and more to liberal progress toward rational freedom. Thepure monistic religion which will develop therefrom will, thanks tothe conquests of our modern natural science, lead the humanity ofthe twentieth century to a higher grade of perfection.

The Boundaries of Natural Science (With portraits).

https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2819&amp;context=ocj

The Boundaries of Natural Science (With portraits).

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