PKINCIPAL ATTEMPTS AT EXPLANATION 159 



have once shown themselves as favourable are inherited 

 and need therefore only to be enhanced. 



It therefore appears as if the living organisms 

 adapted themselves purposefully by their own initiative. 

 That, according to Darwin, is a deception. 



Of adaptation striven for nothing is said. Among 

 the individuals varying without object or plan there 

 must however be, so he says, still some at least 

 which by chance indicate an improvement. The entire 

 apparent selection only requires that not all variations 

 shall be favourable, but only some, which are then 

 preserved. 



Of a plan in the evolution of organisms, of a 

 Creator who in some manner established this plan in 

 the organisms, nothing can consequently be said. 



(ii) Criticism. l (a) Darwinism, regarded as a general 

 hypothesis of evolution, explains absolutely nothing 

 regarding what the organisms actually possess, but only 

 why they have not certain characters. ' To maintain 

 that certain organic qualities can be explained by 

 natural selection is indeed, to use the words of Naegeli, 



1 We treat here of Darwinism as it has finally shaped itself. Darwin 

 himself was clever enough not to express all consequences. He also did 

 not exclude the influence of environment. Nowhere did he express himself 

 clearly regarding the origin of life, and even the name of the Creator appears 

 in his works. But all, even the most absurd consequences, lie established 

 in the system, and the most impossible of all namely, the descent of man 

 from a primitive primary form, by natural selection alone he has finally 

 (1871) himself deduced and had the sad courage to publicly advocate. 

 Darwin thereby has united his fate with that of his theory and with it 

 become bankrupt. Darwin's doctrine has often been criticized, beginning 

 with the noble Wigand, K. E. v. Baer, E. v. Hartmann, up to our own time. 

 See Wagner, Geschichte des Lamarckismus, chap. iii. ; H. Driesch, Philo- 

 sophic des Organischen, I, Leipzig, 1909, .p. 260. 



