Science Literature
Post details: Ernst Haeckel's erroneous visions of nature
02/01/07
Ernst Haeckel's erroneous visions of nature
In this review essay, Ernst Haeckel is presented as the "archetypal German Romantic" who somehow managed to combine his artistic and philosophical interests with his work as Professor of Zoology. His espousal of Darwinism was accompanied by "a search for order, systematization and hierarchy that would reveal far more logic and purpose in life than a mere struggle for survival." His Biogenic Law ("organisms retrace their evolutionary history as they develop from an egg") "was an attempt to extract such a unifying scheme from the natural world." The reviewer finds tensions with science here, for Haeckel had a strong vision of what the world ought to be like. "Haeckel supplies a case study in the collision between Romanticism and science."
The subject of the notorious doctored embryo images is raised. The reviewer says "to my eye the evidence [of doctoring] looks pretty strong". However, the author of the book being reviewed suggests that the illustrations "instructed the reader how to interpret the shapes of nature properly."
Many of us think that generations of students have been cheated by being fed a diet of biogenic law, which is rooted in Haeckel's vision rather than in empirical data. The seriousness of the situation is shown by the way these errors have repeatedly surfaced, even in recent years. It really is time for Haeckel to be reinterpreted as a subversive influence in science. He was a gifted man, but he misused his gifts. He is an example of an ideologically motivated scholar who failed to subject his own ideas to proper critical scrutiny.
Painting the whole picture?
Philip Ball reviews Visions of Nature: The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel by Olaf Breidbach
Nature 445, 486-487 (1 February 2007) | doi:10.1038/445486a
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