Abstract
Numerous authors have examined the influence of other thinkers on Darwin’s formulation of some of the key concepts of the theory of evolution. Amongst those, Alexander von Humboldt often stands out – a scholar who, following his intention to explain the interconnection of various parts of the natural system, seems to tackle the question of evolution but does not offer an explicit answer. In this article, I examine Humboldt’s thoughts on evolution and the origin of species and evaluate his contribution to Darwin’s theory of evolution. First, I analyse and explicate the fundamental assumptions and goals of Humboldt theory, and compare them to Darwin. Moving forward, I highlight the similarity of their methods, and argue that Humboldt and Darwin conduct similar investigation of fossil record and geographical distribution of species. Finally, I show that Humboldt acknowledges essential elements of Darwin’s theory of evolution: evidence given by fossil records, struggle for survival and relation between natural environment and living organisms. Humboldt, however, concludes we cannot know the evolution of species. I explain this stance, and contend that theories of Humboldt and Darwin turn out to be more similar than they seem, yet their different conclusions regarding the evolution of species stem from different initial assumptions underlying their respective frameworks.
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Notes
Citing the letter of Caroline Darwin to Charles Darwin, Baron (2010, p. 03) points out that Humboldt’s influence on Darwin can be detected even in the poetic descriptions of landmarks and life presented in Darwin’s correspondence letters. Humboldt’s vivid descriptions of South America left a notable impression on Darwin. Because of that, some authors also discuss Humboldt’s Romantic influence on Darwin’s work, e.g., Richards (2002); Sloan (2009); Greif (2015); White (2012).
Puig-Samper & Rebok (2010) offer a detailed overview of correspondence and mutual reference between Humboldt and Darwin.
More examples of similar evidence can be found in Voyage of Beagle where one can find many references to Humboldt, as well as numerous Darwin’s letters.
For example, Humboldt states there are many relations between atmospheric electricity and other natural phenomena. In the case of the organic world, atmospheric electricity has an impact not only as a meteorological process, but as an electrical force that directly affects the nerves and promotes the circulation of “organic juices” (Humboldt, 1893, pp. 342–343).
Due to limited space, the fact one can write another paper dedicated just to the Humboldtian science, and possible long digression on this topic, I refrain to futher discussion of this notion.
The origin of life refers to the moment of actual creation, the beginning of existence from the non-existence (Humboldt, 1893, p. 68).
For example, Darwin designed an experiment to determine how plants and animals migrate to distant island (Darwin, 1997).
However, one should note that Humboldt was not the first to study biogeography. For example, August Wilhelm von Zimmermann also developed a historical biogeography and his influence on Humboldt, as Glaubrecht notices, should not be underestimated (Glaubrecht, 2022, p. 33).
Reasons for such methodological decision can be found, on the one hand, in creationist interpretation of fossils and, on the other hand, in numerous criticisms that emphasized the shortcomings of this form of evidence as evidence for the theory of evolution. For details on these aspects, please see (Archibald, 2017).
Besides Jackson, Helmreich states that Humboldt completely adopts Cuvier’s anti-evolutionist argumentation (2009, p. 60).
Humboldt takes this example from Vol. V of his Personal Narrative (Humboldt, 1819, pp. 437–438).
As noted, Cosmos is divided into several thematic units dealing with the phenomena of five different spheres: atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere (the domain of living beings), and the celestial sphere. Making an exception with these terms, Humboldt does not use the term “sphere” in the sense I opt to use it. Nonetheless, I believe the notion of five natural spheres can introduce us to a better understanding of Humboldt’s holism: life equally affects the natural processes in each of these spheres and contributes to the creation and maintenance of harmony in nature. I offer a detailed explanation in due course. On this place, I feel the need to shortly explain my usage of this term.
To my knowledge, Humboldt does not use the term “struggle for survival.” He does, however, speak of the “struggle with the elements”, where the term “elements” betoken different phenomena that challenge the survival of organic beings, e.g., limited food resources, potential predators, natural disasters etc. It seems to me that the notion of struggle with the elements captures Darwinian sense of the struggle for survival.
I should not that Humboldt does not separately define and discuss these phenomena. Nonetheless, they represent an important part of his general research of nature. Uncovering the relations between his distinct discussions in various writings reveals a coherent picture of his position on the problem of the evolution of species.
A significant observation given the fact that the difference among the birds on islands is greater compared to the South American species.
For example, in Cosmos, Humboldt refers many times to Kant’s Universal Natural History and theory of the heavens ([1755] 2012), and Kant argues in his Physical Geography that “it is to be hoped that we shall get to know a significant part of South America better through von Humboldt” (Kant, 2012 p. 508).
Lofti explains the functionality of living organisms must be regarded as operating in accordance with the mechanical laws but says Kant was skeptical that we would be able to explain it from such a point of view (Lofti, 2010, p. 124); Kolb contrasts Kant’s view of organic teleology with his account of mechanical processes and concludes that explanations of purposiveness of organisms requires “both a systematic conception of a whole not found in mechanical explanations and a reversal of the mechanical order of cause and effect” (Kolb, 1992, pp.12–13).
As noted before, Glaubrecht (2022) and Helmreich (2009) retain their conclusions that Humboldt is not evolutionist. Werner states we cannot find any evolutionist thesis in Humboldt’s Cosmos (Werner, 2010). Wulf states that Humboldt is evolutionist, and indicates he indeed is a pre-Darwinian Darwinist (Wulf, 2015,p. 272). Schmuck (2014), however, argues Humboldt is an evolutionist, even though he is not a Darwinian due to the methodological limitations of his theory.
In fact, Humboldt’s general theory represents the fusion of natural, social and political observations, which probably represents the greatest difference between him and Darwin.
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Acknowledgments
I thank Slobodan Perovi? for carefully reading and commenting on previous versions of the manuscript. His suggestions helped to greatly improve it. I also thank two anonymous referees for their insightful suggestions.
Funding
This research was supported by the Ministry of education, science and technological development of the Republic of Serbia under the project ?Dynamical systems in nature and society: philosophical and empirical aspects? (179041).
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Stamenković, B. Humboldt, Darwin, and theory of evolution. HPLS 44, 57 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-022-00546-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-022-00546-3