HAECKEL'S PHILOSOPHY. 4°7 



THE WORLD-VIEW OF A SCIENTIST: ERNST HAECKEL'S 



PHILOSOPHY.* 



By Professor FRANK THILLY, 



UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI. 



IN" 1892 Ernst Haeckel, the celebrated biologist, delivered an address 

 before a society of naturalists, in which he outlined his creed, his 

 'Glaubensbekenntniss eines Naturforschers.' This address was printed 

 under the title 'Monism as a Bond between Religion and Science/ 

 and is now in its tenth edition. In 1899 a more elaborate account of 

 Haeckel's philosophy was given to the world in a book called 'The 

 World Riddles.' Within a few weeks after the appearance of this work 

 10,000 copies has been sold. It was at once translated into English and 

 figured prominently in the lists of the most popular books of the day 

 in our country. The magazines and even daily papers have published 

 review after review of the 'World Riddles'; pamphlets and books have 

 been written about it, and the interest still continues.* The Academy 

 of Turin, Italy, has declared the ' World Riddles, ' to be the best book 

 written during the last four years of the nineteenth century, and has 

 awarded to its author the Bressa prize of 10,000 lire. The work has rais- 

 ed the feelings of many usually tranquil persons to a higher pitch of ex- 

 citement, provoking extravagant expressions of admiration from some, 

 and words of passionate indignation from others. There is joy in the 

 camp of the Haeckelites, where the author is glorified as the greatest phi- 

 losopher of the age, while in the ranks of the opponents there is angry 

 contempt for a man who, so it is said, is an absolute ignoramus in 

 matters of philosophy and in everything outside of his own Fach, and 

 some critics are even willing to call in question his standing as a 

 biologist. The turmoil is increasing, the angry voices are growing 

 louder, and we hear words of reproach and insult on both sides, which 

 we are not accustomed to hear from the lips of men of science. Some 

 of the attacks which have been made upon Haeckel have passed the 

 bounds of the respectable. One fire-eater, a Christian theologian, has 

 taken the matter so to heart as to make an entirely personal affair 

 of it. 'My remarks,' he says, 'are an attack upon Haeckel's honor, 

 and are intended as such. 'J The conflicts between the realists and 



* Lecture delivered at Cornell University under the auspices of the Sage 

 School Philosophical Club. 



t Schmidt, ' Der Kampf um die Weltraethsel/ mentions 72 German titles, 

 to which may be added at least two more, making with his own work 75. 



% Loofs, ' Anti-Haeckel.' 



