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Natural Selection in Ernst Haeckel’s Legacy

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Natural Selection

Part of the book series: Evolutionary Biology – New Perspectives on Its Development ((EBNPD,volume 3))

Abstract

The “German Darwin” Ernst Haeckel was very influential not only in Germany but in non-German-speaking countries as well. He was a key figure during the “first Darwinian revolution,” a period when the foundation for the modern evolutionary theory was laid. Haeckel defended and developed the Darwinian theory with unparalleled passion and energy. He created a conceptual framework within which the majority of Darwinians worldwide worked over decades. Contemporary evolutionary theory is unthinkable without notions coined by Haeckel such as “phylogeny,” “ontogeny,” “phylogenetic tree,” or “ecology.” Moreover, his theories were encouraged and admired by Darwin himself. It was Haeckel who crucially contributed to the visualization of the Darwinian theory and who tried to convert Darwinism into a universal worldview. Yet it remains controversial to what extent Haeckel’s view of evolutionary mechanisms corresponded to those in Darwin’s own theory. In this chapter, we will examine this issue and demonstrate that although Haeckel championed natural selection throughout his whole career, his neo-Lamarckian concept of variation made his grasp of natural selection different from that of Darwin. As paradoxical as it may sound from the modern viewpoint, Haeckel made these neo-Lamarckian adjustments in order to render the Darwinian theoretical system more straightforward.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    E. Mayr to U. Hossfeld, Bedford, MA, 5 March 2004.

  2. 2.

    Darwin to Ernst Haeckel, 9 March 1864. https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-4422.xml.

  3. 3.

    Darwin to Haeckel, 21 November 1864. https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4676.xml.

  4. 4.

    Although the genuine nature of Lamarck’s original theory is a topic of debate, the term neo-Lamarckism (Lamarckism) “has come to mean the inheritance of acquired characteristics” (Bowler 2003, p. 90).

  5. 5.

    Comparatively, an appeal to Einstein’s writings on general relativity constitutes a strong argument in favor of the “Einsteinianism” of a particular concept.

  6. 6.

    Letter 5293 (Darwin to Haeckel, 18 August 1866).

  7. 7.

    “Forschungstrieb,” a term akin to Blumenbach’s Nisus Formativus.

  8. 8.

    All citations from GM are given in our translation. German original: “Die 1859 von Charles Darwin veröffentlichte Entdeckung der natürlichen Zuchtwahl im Kampfe ums Dasein, eine der grössten Entdeckungen des menschlichen Forschungstriebes, hat mit einem Male ein so gewaltiges und klärendes Licht in das dunkle Chaos der haufenweis gesammelten biologischen Thatsachen geworfen, dass es auch den crassesten Empirikern fernerhin, wenn sie überhaupt mit der Wissenschaft fortschreiten wollen, nicht mehr möglich sein wird, sich der daraus emporwachsenden neuen Naturphilosophie zu entziehen.”

  9. 9.

    “Alle die zahlreichen Arten der drei Reiche, welche jemals auf unserer Erde gelebt haben, sind in dieser Weise, unter dem Einflüsse der von Darwin entdeckten natürlichen Zuchtwahl, im Laufe der Zeit aus einer geringen Anzahl autogener Species hervorgegangen.”

  10. 10.

    German allows many synonymous expressions for natural selection—natürliche Auslese, natürliche Zuchtwahl, natürliche Selektion, etc.—and therefore it is difficult to conduct very exact calculations, but the number we give provides a rough estimate (see Table 5.1).

  11. 11.

    “Vererbung der durch Anpassung erworbenen Abänderungen.”

  12. 12.

    Cf. “Haeckel was indeed a progressionist, but then so was Darwin” (Richards 2009, p. 147).

  13. 13.

    Richards maintains that Haeckel advocated “accidental variations” to a much greater extent than we think as Anpassung in Haeckel’s texts does not necessarily mean (pre)adaptation to environmental circumstances (Richards 2009, p. 145).

  14. 14.

    Haeckel used the term “Entwickelung” (development) in the sense of contemporary term “evolution.”

  15. 15.

    German original: “Der phylogenetische Naturprocess ist im Grossen und Ganzen ein Process der fortschreitenden Entwickelung. In der Geschichte der organischen Welt nimmt von Periode zu Periode die Zahl, Mannichfaltigkeit und Vollkommenheit der organischen Formen zu; dieser historische Fortschritt wird in der Palaeontologie um so auffallender, je mehr wir uns der Gegenwart nähern. Die grosse Thatsache dieser progressiven Entwickelung findet ihre Erklärung durch die Selections-Theorie; denn die natürliche Zuchtwahl durch den Kampf um’s Dasein, welche jederzeit und unaufhörlich mittelst der Anpassung und Vererbung wirksam ist, hat zur notwendigen Folge eine beständige Vermehrung, Differenzirung und Vervollkommnung der Organismen.”

  16. 16.

    Letter no. DCP-LETT-10506 (Darwin to Haeckel, 14 May 1876).

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Acknowledgments

We are very thankful to Wiebke Eichhorn (Wolgast, Germany) for composing the reference tables.

Dr. Thomas Bach (Ernst-Haeckel-Haus, Jena, Germany) was very kind to supply us with archival materials and advices. Cameron Yetman (Halifax, Canada) kindly assisted in improving the English version of this chapter.

Archival Sources

  • Letters of Ernst Mayr to Uwe Hossfeld (private archive of Uwe Hossfeld)

  • Letters of Darwin to Haeckel (www.darwinproject.ac.uk)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biology Education Research Group, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Jena, Germany

    Georgy S. Levit & Uwe Hossfeld

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  1. Georgy S. Levit
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  2. Uwe Hossfeld
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Liberal Education and Department of Philosophy, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada

    Richard G. Delisle

Supplementary Materials

Supplementary Materials

Table 5.1 Selectionist terms in Haeckel’s Generelle Morphologie (1866)
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Table 5.2 “Sexual selection” in the Generelle Morphologie
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Table 5.3 “Artificial selection” and “the process of (artificial) selection” in the Generelle Morphologie
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Table 5.4 References to the selectionist mechanisms in three volumes of Haeckel’s Systematische Phylogenie (1894, 1895, and 1896)
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Levit, G.S., Hossfeld, U. (2021). Natural Selection in Ernst Haeckel’s Legacy. In: Delisle, R.G. (eds) Natural Selection. Evolutionary Biology – New Perspectives on Its Development, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65536-5_5

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