Konturen VI (2014) 1
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
The Philosophical and Historical Roots of Evolutionary Tree Diagrams
Evo Edu Outreach (2011) 4:515–538 DOI 10.1007/s12052-011-0355-0 HISTORYAND PHILOSOPHY Depicting the Tree of Life: the Philosophical and Historical Roots of Evolutionary Tree Diagrams Nathalie Gontier Published online: 19 August 2011 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 Abstract It is a popularly held view that Darwin was the were the result of this blend would, from the nineteenth first author to draw a phylogenetic tree diagram. However, century onward, also include the element of time. The as is the case with most popular beliefs, this one also does recognition of time would eventually lead to the recognition not hold true. Firstly, Darwin never called his diagram of of evolution as a fact of nature, and subsequently, tree common descent a tree. Secondly, even before Darwin, tree iconographies would come to represent exclusively the diagrams were used by a variety of philosophical, religious, evolutionary descent of species. and secular scholars to depict phenomena such as “logical relationships,”“affiliations,”“genealogical descent,”“af- Keywords Species classification . Evolutionary finity,” and “historical relatedness” between the elements iconography. Tree of life . Networks . Diagram . Phylogeny. portrayed on the tree. Moreover, historically, tree diagrams Genealogy. Pedigree . Stammbaum . Affinity. Natural themselves can be grouped into a larger class of diagrams selection that were drawn to depict natural and/or divine order in the world. In this paper, we trace the historical roots and cultural meanings of these tree diagrams. It will be Introduction demonstrated that tree diagrams as we know them are the outgrowth of ancient philosophical attempts to find the In this paper, we focus on the “why” of tree iconography. -
Copyrighted Material
Chapter 1 History Systematics has its origins in two threads of biological science: classification and evolution. The organization of natural variation into sets, groups, and hierarchies traces its roots to Aristotle and evolution to Darwin. Put simply, systematization of nature can and has progressed in absence of causative theories relying on ideas of “plan of nature,” divine or otherwise. Evolutionists (Darwin, Wallace, and others) proposed a rationale for these patterns. This mixture is the foundation of modern systematics. Originally, systematics was natural history. Today we think of systematics as being a more inclusive term, encompassing field collection, empirical compar- ative biology, and theory. To begin with, however, taxonomy, now known as the process of naming species and higher taxa in a coherent, hypothesis-based, and regular way, and systematics were equivalent. Roman bust of Aristotle (384–322 BCE) 1.1 Aristotle Systematics as classification (or taxonomy) draws its Western origins from Aris- totle1. A student of Plato at the Academy and reputed teacher of Alexander the Great, Aristotle founded the Lyceum in Athens, writing on a broad variety of topics including what we now call biology. To Aristotle, living things (species) came from nature as did other physical classes (e.g. gold or lead). Today, we refer to his classification of living things (Aristotle, 350 BCE) that show simi- larities with the sorts of classifications we create now. In short, there are three featuresCOPYRIGHTED of his methodology that weMATERIAL recognize immediately: it was functional, binary, and empirical. Aristotle’s classification divided animals (his work on plants is lost) using Ibn Rushd (Averroes) functional features as opposed to those of habitat or anatomical differences: “Of (1126–1198) land animals some are furnished with wings, such as birds and bees.” Although he recognized these features as different in aspect, they are identical in use. -
Ernst Haeckel and the Morphology of Ethics Nolan Hele
Document généré le 26 sept. 2021 19:41 Journal of the Canadian Historical Association Revue de la Société historique du Canada Ernst Haeckel and the Morphology of Ethics Nolan Hele Volume 15, numéro 1, 2004 URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/012066ar DOI : https://doi.org/10.7202/012066ar Aller au sommaire du numéro Éditeur(s) The Canadian Historical Association/La Société historique du Canada ISSN 0847-4478 (imprimé) 1712-6274 (numérique) Découvrir la revue Citer cet article Hele, N. (2004). Ernst Haeckel and the Morphology of Ethics. Journal of the Canadian Historical Association / Revue de la Société historique du Canada, 15(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.7202/012066ar Tous droits réservés © The Canadian Historical Association/La Société Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d’auteur. L’utilisation des historique du Canada, 2004 services d’Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d’utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne. https://apropos.erudit.org/fr/usagers/politique-dutilisation/ Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit. Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l’Université de Montréal, l’Université Laval et l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. https://www.erudit.org/fr/ chajournal2004.qxd 12/01/06 14:11 Page 1 Ernst Haeckel and the Morphology of Ethics NOLAN HEIE n 10 May 1907, Johannes Reinke,1 a Professor of botany at the University Oof Kiel and member of the Prussian upper chamber, the -
Joseph Krauskopf's Evolution and Judaism
The University of Manchester Research Joseph Krauskopf’s Evolution and Judaism: One Reform Rabbi’s Response to Scepticism and Materialism in Nineteenth-century North America DOI: 10.31826/9781463237141-012 Document Version Final published version Link to publication record in Manchester Research Explorer Citation for published version (APA): Langton, D. (2015). Joseph Krauskopf’s Evolution and Judaism: One Reform Rabbi’s Response to Scepticism and Materialism in Nineteenth-century North America. Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies, 12, 122-130. https://doi.org/10.31826/9781463237141-012 Published in: Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies Citing this paper Please note that where the full-text provided on Manchester Research Explorer is the Author Accepted Manuscript or Proof version this may differ from the final Published version. If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the Research Explorer are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Takedown policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please refer to the University of Manchester’s Takedown Procedures [http://man.ac.uk/04Y6Bo] or contact [email protected] providing relevant details, so we can investigate your claim. Download date:10. Oct. 2021 EDITOR Daniel R. Langton ASSISTANT EDITOR Simon Mayers Title: Joseph Krauskopf’s Evolution and Judaism: One Reform Rabbi’s Response to Scepticism and Materialism in Nineteenth-century North America Author(s): DANIEL R. -
Ernst Haeckel's Embryological Illustrations
Pictures of Evolution and Charges of Fraud Ernst Haeckel’s Embryological Illustrations By Nick Hopwood* ABSTRACT Comparative illustrations of vertebrate embryos by the leading nineteenth-century Dar- winist Ernst Haeckel have been both highly contested and canonical. Though the target of repeated fraud charges since 1868, the pictures were widely reproduced in textbooks through the twentieth century. Concentrating on their first ten years, this essay uses the accusations to shed light on the novelty of Haeckel’s visual argumentation and to explore how images come to count as proper representations or illegitimate schematics as they cross between the esoteric and exoteric circles of science. It exploits previously unused manuscripts to reconstruct the drawing, printing, and publishing of the illustrations that attracted the first and most influential attack, compares these procedures to standard prac- tice, and highlights their originality. It then explains why, though Haeckel was soon ac- cused, controversy ignited only seven years later, after he aligned a disciplinary struggle over embryology with a major confrontation between liberal nationalism and Catholicism—and why the contested pictures nevertheless survived. INETEENTH-CENTURY IMAGES OF EVOLUTION powerfully and controversially N shape our view of the world. In 1997 a British developmental biologist accused the * Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RH, United Kingdom. Research for this essay was supported by the Wellcome Trust and partly carried out in the departments of Lorraine Daston and Hans-Jo¨rg Rheinberger at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. My greatest debt is to the archivists of the Ernst-Haeckel-Haus, Jena: the late Erika Krauße gave generous help and invaluable advice over many years, and Thomas Bach, her successor as Kustos, provided much assistance with this project. -
Ernst Haeckel's Monistic Religon
ERNST HAECKEL'S MONISTIC RELIGION BY NILESR. HOLT For some of his contemporaries, the German zoologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) was the "nihilistic yet superstitious prophet of a new religion."' Others saw him as a vindicator who would confirm the triumph of science in its nineteenth-century warfare with religion. For still others, he was the "apostle of Darwinism," the major crusader on the European continent for the acceptance of Darwinism. Charles Darwin wrote that if one of Haeckel's works had appeared before his own The Descent of Man (1871), "I should probably never have com- pleted it. Almost all of the conclusions at which I have arrived I find confirmed by ... this naturalist, whose knowledge on many points is fuller than mine."2 Unlike some exponents of Darwinism, Haeckel's own consequential achievements in morphology and embryology pre- vented him from being dismissed as merely another of "Darwin's bull- dogs." From a position of scientific eminence, as professor of zoology at the University of Jena, Haeckel combined his activities to promote Darwinism with popularizations of his own "Monism." He presented Monism as a scientific movement which was based on Darwinism and 'This particular description is from "Popular Science in Germany," The Nation, DCXV (1879), 179-80. Haeckel's hopes to make of his Monism an international move- ment were heightened by interest in his Monistic system in the United States to the point that Paul Carus, editor of the Monist, attempted to distinguish between Haeckel's and that journal's "Monism." See the early correspondence between Carus and Haeckel, published as "Professor Haeckel's Monism and the Ideas of God and Im- mortality," Open Court, V (1891), 2957-58. -
1 Did Goethe and Schelling Endorse Species Evolution?
Did Goethe and Schelling Endorse Species Evolution? Robert J. Richards University of Chicago Charles Darwin was quite sensitive to the charge that his theory of species transmutation was not original but had been anticipated by earlier authors, most famously by Lamarck and his own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin. The younger Darwin believed, however, his own originality lay in the device he used to explain the change of species over time and in the kind of evidence he brought to bear to demonstrate such change. He was thus ready to concede and recognize predecessors, especially those that caused only modest ripples in the intellectual stream. In the historical introduction that he included in the third edition of the Origin, he acknowledged Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as “an extreme partisan” of the transmutation view. He had been encouraged to embrace Goethe as a fellow transmutationist by Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire and Ernst Haeckel.1 Scholars today think that Darwin’s recognition of Goethe was a mistake. They usually deny that the Naturphilosophen, especially Friedrich Joseph Schelling, held anything like a theory of species evolution in the manner of Charles Darwin—that is, a conception of a gradual change of species in the empirical world over long periods of time. Dietrich von Engelhardt, for instance, in commenting on an enticing passage from Schelling’s Erster Entwurf eines Systems der Naturphilosophie (First sketch of a system of nature philosophy,1799), declares “Schelling is no forerunner of Darwin.” Schelling, 1 Darwin mentions in his historical introduction to the Origin that Geoffroy St. Hilaire had recognized Goethe as a transmutationist. -
From Idea to Law: Theory, Concept and Terminological Formation in Ernst Haeckel’S Works Karl Porgesa, Ian G
ISSN 1062-3604, Russian Journal of Developmental Biology, 2019, Vol. 50, No. 6, pp. 290–302. © Pleiades Publishing, Inc., 2019. Published in Russian in Ontogenez, 2019, Vol. 50, No. 6, pp. 368–382. HISTORY OF BIOLOGY From Idea to Law: Theory, Concept and Terminological Formation in Ernst Haeckel’s Works Karl Porgesa, Ian G. Stewartb, c, Uwe Hoßfelda, and Georgy S. Levitd, * aResearch Group for Biology Education, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, 07743 Germany bHistory of Science and Technology, University of King’s College, Halifax, B3H 2A1 NS cDepartment of Classics, Dalhousie University, Marion McCain Arts and Social Sciences Building, Halifax, B3H 4R2 NS dInstitute of Biology, University of Kassel, Heinrich-Plett-Straße 40, Kassel, 34132 Germany 2 Biology *e-mail: [email protected] Received May 29, 2019; revised July 2, 2019; accepted July 8, 2019 Abstract—Since Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) published their trailblazing ideas, the scientific community’s discussion of evolutionary biology has included the topic of embryological development. The concepts of ontogeny and phylogeny, still current in contemporary biology, together with the now obsolete biogenetic law and his Gastraea theory, which trace back to Haeckel, all underwent an evo- lution of their own in Haeckel’s works. The record of this evolution makes clear how the features of his think- ing that proved durable, such as ontogeny and phylogeny, were established as such through a difficult creative process of formation of concepts, theories, and terminology that themselves enjoyed varying fortunes. Begin- ning with Haeckel’s Generelle Morphologie der Organismen [General Morphology of Organisms] (1866), this paper traces aspects of the conceptual and terminological evolution that takes place both within the pages of this highly complex but seminal work and then chronologically in later works. -