

DOMAIN OF EVOLUTIONARY HYPOTHESIS 139 



Appendix : Are there ' higher ' and ' lower ' types ? 

 In the Biologischen Zentralblatt (Nos. 1 and 2, 

 1911) B. Franz published a long article under the 

 title ' Was ist ein hoherer Organismus ? ' Franz 

 concedes in the first place that the opinion, that 

 there are various high grades of development of 

 animals and plants, and that ' man represents the 

 highest grade of organic evolution/ has been held 

 essentially unchanged throughout the whole period 

 of biological research since the time of Aristotle 

 (p. 1). Then, however, he says (p. 2) that all our 

 ideas as regards high and low in the organic kingdom 

 are perfectly objectless. This so far had certainly 

 been recognized by only three biologists (p. 2). 



On page 3 it is stated ' that the assumed higher 

 organism is neither more perfect than the assumed 

 lower, nor in principle is it distinguished from it by 

 additions or differentiations as of higher grade than 

 the lower . . . wherefore it is best henceforth to 

 avoid entirely the misleading expressions " higher " 

 or " lower " organization, " more perfect " or " less 

 perfect," etc., in biological parlance/ The author will 

 certainly not succeed in establishing this idea, and 

 the number of his disciples who, in the vanquishing 

 of false prejudices, 'go far enough' (p. 2), will 

 certainly not far exceed the three aforesaid. 



Franz arrives at his as he himself feels extra- 

 ordinary conclusion because he confuses purposeful 

 (ZwecJcmdssig) and perfect (VolJcommen). We will 

 therefore at least explain these two expressions. 



