Transcript Ernst Hackel

Ernst Hackel
The Riddle of the Universe
Hackel
Trained as a Physician but abandoned
practice after reading Origin of Species
 Became a professor of comparative
anatomy and intensely studied sponges
and segments
 Dabbled in anthropology, biology and
cosmology
 Was accused of falsifying data
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Hackel II.
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Was influenced both by the German idealistic
tradition and by the works of Darwin
 Became one of the more vociferous supporters
of evolution, but was less supportive of natural
selection as the mechanism by which evolution
occurred
 Believed that all species were historical entities
(lineages) environment acted directly on
organisms, producing new races
Manifestations
The survival of the races depends most
strongly on their interaction with the
environment
 His "biogenic theory", suggested that the
development of races paralleled the
development of individuals. He advocated
that "primitive" races were in their
infancies and needed the "supervision"
and "protection" of more "mature" societies
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The History of Creation (1868)
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"In order to be convinced of this important result, it is
above all things necessary to study and compare the
mental life of wild savages and of children. At the
lowest stage of human mental development are the
Australians, some tribes of the Polynesians, and the
Bushmen, Hottentots, and some of the Negro tribes.
In many of these languages there are numerals only
for one, two, and three: no Australian language
counts beyond four. Very many wild tribes can count
no further than ten or twenty, whereas some very
clever dogs have been made to count up to forty and
even beyond sixty."
Theory of Recapitulation
the development of the individual of every
species fully repeats the evolutionary
development of that species
 each successive stage in the development
of an individual represents one of the adult
forms that appeared in its evolutionary
history.
 Totally wrong but still influential at the time
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