Darwinism between Kant and Haeckel

This paper attempts to describe and evaluate the major proponents of evolutionary thought in nineteenth-century German Protestantism. It shows that the soil was well prepared for Darwin's ideas, many of his theses having been advocated in Germany prior to the publication of his Origin of Species. While the mainstream of evolutionary thought in Germany was quite antireligious in terms of the established religion, evolutionists still admitted to being at a loss to explain the relationship between the own self and matter. The author concludes that we cannot choose between Kant or Hegel, the main philosophical mentors of German nineteenth-century evolutionists, but must learn from both. Such a venture would meet the hope of Haeckel to bridge the dichotomy between dualism and monism through a comprehensive monistic view

Darwin (ADL) · Darwinism · Dualism · Epistemology · Evolutionism · German · Hegelianism · Mainstream · Monism · Protestantism · Theology · Evolution and Science Education · Philosophy · Religious studies