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Ernst Haeckel

Ernst Haeckel Biography

Philosopher

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“The ancestors of the higher animals must be regarded as one-celled beings, similar to the Amoebae which at the present day occur in our rivers, pools, and lakes. The incontrovertible fact that each human individual develops from an egg, which, in common with those of all animals, is a simple cell, most clearly proves that the most remote ancestors of man were primordial animals of this sort, of a form equivalent to a simple cell. When, therefore, the theory of the animal descent of man is condemned as a 'horrible, shocking, and immoral' doctrine, tho unalterable fact, which can be proved at any moment under the microscope, that the human egg is a simple cell, which is in no way different to those of other mammals, must equally be pronounced 'horrible, shocking, and immoral.”

ScienceEvolutionBiologyAncestorImmoralPrimordialSingle Cell
Book:The History Of Creation V2: Or The Development Of The Earth And Its Inhabitants By The Action Of Natural Causes
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“I established the opposite view, that this history of the embryo (ontogeny) must be completed by a second, equally valuable, and closely connected branch of thought - the history of race (phylogeny). Both of these branches of evolutionary science, are, in my opinion, in the closest causal connection; this arises from the reciprocal action of the laws of heredity and adaptation... 'ontogenesis is a brief and rapid recapitulation of phylogenesis, determined by the physiological functions of heredity (generation) and adaptation (maintenance).”

ActionLawViewsRaceOpinionGenerationsConnectionsOppositesFunctionValuableConnectedDeterminedAriseBranchesClosestAdaptationRapidsMaintenanceReciprocalPhysiologicalHeredityEmbryosRecapitulation
Author:Ernst Haeckel
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“An irrefutable proof that such single-celled primaeval animals really existed as the direct ancestors of Man, is furnished according to the fundamental law of biogeny by the fact that the human egg is nothing more than a simple cell.”

MenHumansFactsLawScienceSimpleAnimalEvolutionDirectFundamentalsProofCellsEggsAncestor
Book:The History of Creation: Or The Development of the Earth and Its Inhabitants by the Action of Natural Causes. A Popular Exposition of the Doctrine of Evolution in General, and of that of Darwin, Goethe, and Lamarck in Particular. From the 8th German Ed. of Ernst Haeckel ... The Translation Rev. by E. Ray Lankester
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“It is, however, a most astonishing but incontestable fact, that the history of the evolution of man as yet constitutes no part of general education. Indeed, our so-called "educated classes" are to this day in total ignorance of the most important circumstances and the most remarkable phenomena which Anthropogeny has brought to light.”

MenImportantFactsLightScienceClassIgnoranceEvolutionCircumstancesImportanceIgnorantEducatedRemarkableThis DayAstonishingGeneral EducationEvolution Of Man
Book:The Evolution of Man: A Popular Exposition of the Principal Points of Human Ontogeny and Phylogeny
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“The succession of individuals, connected by reproduction and belonging to a species, makes it possible for the specific form itself to last for ages. In the end, however, the species is temporary; it has no "eternal life." After existing for a certain period, it either dies or is converted by modification into other forms.”

LifeEndsAgeLastsFormScienceCertainDiesIndividualExistenceEvolutionPeriodsEternalSpeciesConnectedBelongingTemporaryEternal LifeSuccessionReproductionModification
Book:Wonders of life
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“Where faith commences, science ends. Both these arts of the human mind must be strictly kept apart from each other. Faith has its origin in the poetic imagination; knowledge, on the other hand, originates in the reasoning intelligence of man. Science has to pluck the blessed fruits from the tree of knowledge, unconcerned whether these conquests trench upon the poetical imaginings of faith or not.”

MenMindHumansArtEndsHandsScienceFaithImaginationKnowledgeTreeBlessedFruitReasoningPoeticHuman MindConquestScience And ReligionPluckTrenchesUnconcernedTree Of Knowledge
Book:The History of Creation, Or, The Development of the Earth and Its Inhabitants by the Action of Natural Causes: A Popular Exposition of the Doctrine of Evolution in General, and of that of Darwin, Goethe, and Lamarck in Particular
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“Among the Spartans all newly born children were subject to a careful examination or selection. All those that were weak, sickly, or affected with any bodily infirmity, were killed. Only the perfectly healthy and strong children were allowed to live, and they alone afterwards propagated the race.”

ChildrenStrongBornRaceSubjectsHealthyWeakCarefulAffectedSelectionExaminationInfirmity
Book:The History of Creation: Or The Development of the Earth and Its Inhabitants by the Action of Natural Causes. A Popular Exposition of the Doctrine of Evolution in General, and of that of Darwin, Goethe, and Lamarck in Particular. From the 8th German Ed. of Ernst Haeckel ... The Translation Rev. by E. Ray Lankester
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“We are compelled by reflection to recognize that God is not to be placed against the material world [as in Christianity], but must be placed as a 'divine power' or 'moving spirit' within the cosmos itself ... All the wonderful phenomena of nature around us, organic as well as inorganic, are only various products of one and the same original force.”

WorldWellsMovingSpiritForceChristianityWonderfulDivineMaterialsProductsReflectionOriginalsVariousCosmosCompelledMaterial WorldDivine Power
Author:Ernst Haeckel
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“Mental differences between the lowest men and the animals are less than those between the lowest and the highest man.”

MenDifferencesAnimalHighestLowest
Book:The History of Creation: Or The Development of the Earth and Its Inhabitants by the Action of Natural Causes. A Popular Exposition of the Doctrine of Evolution in General, and of that of Darwin, Goethe, and Lamarck in Particular. From the 8th German Ed. of Ernst Haeckel ... The Translation Rev. by E. Ray Lankester
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