The Riddle of the Universe at the close of the nineteenth century

Name: The Riddle of the Universe at the close of the nineteenth century
Author: Haeckel, Ernst

Haeckel, Ernst

Evolution; Monism; Religion and science; Soul

From the fact that consciousness, like all other psychic functions,
is dependent on the normal development of certain organs, and that
it gradually unfolds in the child in proportion to the development
of those organs, we may already conclude that it has arisen in the
animal kingdom by a gradual historical development. Still, however
certain we are of the fact of this natural evolution of consciousness,
we are, unfortunately, not yet in a position to enter more deeply
into the question and construct special hypotheses in elucidation
of it. Palæontology, it is true, gives us a few facts which are not
without significance. For instance, the quantitative and qualitative
development of the brain of the placental mammals during the Tertiary
period is very remarkable. The cavity of many of the fossil skulls of
the period has been carefully examined, and has given us a good deal of
reliable information as to the size, and, to some extent, as to the
structure, of the brain they enclosed. We find, within the limits of
one and the same group (the ungulates, the rodents, or the primates), a
marked advance in the later miocene and pliocene specimens as compared
with the earlier eocene and oligocene representatives of the same stem;
in the former the brain (in proportion to the size of the organism) is
six to eight times as large as in the latter.

Moreover, that highest stage of consciousness, which is reached by man
alone, has been evolved step by step--even by the very progress of
civilization--from a lower condition, as we find illustrated to-day in
the case of uncivilized races. That is easily proved by a comparison
of their languages, which is closely connected with the comparison of
their ideas. The higher the conceptual faculty advances in thoughtful
civilized man, the more qualified he is to detect common features amid
a multitude of details, and embody them in general concepts, and so
much the clearer and deeper does his consciousness become.




CHAPTER XI

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL

    The Citadel of Superstition--Athanatism and Thanatism--Individual
    Character of Death--Immortality of the Unicellular Organisms
    (Protists)--Cosmic and Personal Immortality--Primary Thanatism (of
    Uncivilized Peoples)--Secondary Thanatism (of Ancient and Recent
    Philosophers)--Athanatism and Religion--Origin of the Belief
    in Immortality--Christian Athanatism--Eternal Life--The Day of
    Judgment--Metaphysical Athanatism--Substance of the Soul--Ether
    Souls and Air Souls; Fluid Souls and Solid Souls--Immortality of
    the Animal Soul--Arguments for and Against Athanatism--Athanatist
    Illusions

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The Riddle of the Universe at the close of the nineteenth centuryHaeckel, Ernst

Religion

The Riddle of the Universe at the close of the nineteenth century

Haeckel, Ernst

Evolution; Monism; Religion and science; Soul

From the fact that consciousness, like all other psychic functions,
is dependent on the normal development of certain organs, and that
it gradually unfolds in the child in proportion to the development
of those organs, we may already conclude that it has arisen in the
animal kingdom by a gradual historical development. Still, however
certain we are of the fact of this natural evolution of consciousness,
we are, unfortunately, not yet in a position to enter more deeply
into the question and construct special hypotheses in elucidation
of it. Palæontology, it is true, gives us a few facts which are not
without significance. For instance, the quantitative and qualitative
development of the brain of the placental mammals during the Tertiary
period is very remarkable. The cavity of many of the fossil skulls of
the period has been carefully examined, and has given us a good deal of
reliable information as to the size, and, to some extent, as to the
structure, of the brain they enclosed. We find, within the limits of
one and the same group (the ungulates, the rodents, or the primates), a
marked advance in the later miocene and pliocene specimens as compared
with the earlier eocene and oligocene representatives of the same stem;
in the former the brain (in proportion to the size of the organism) is
six to eight times as large as in the latter.

Moreover, that highest stage of consciousness, which is reached by man
alone, has been evolved step by step--even by the very progress of
civilization--from a lower condition, as we find illustrated to-day in
the case of uncivilized races. That is easily proved by a comparison
of their languages, which is closely connected with the comparison of
their ideas. The higher the conceptual faculty advances in thoughtful
civilized man, the more qualified he is to detect common features amid
a multitude of details, and embody them in general concepts, and so
much the clearer and deeper does his consciousness become.




CHAPTER XI

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL

    The Citadel of Superstition--Athanatism and Thanatism--Individual
    Character of Death--Immortality of the Unicellular Organisms
    (Protists)--Cosmic and Personal Immortality--Primary Thanatism (of
    Uncivilized Peoples)--Secondary Thanatism (of Ancient and Recent
    Philosophers)--Athanatism and Religion--Origin of the Belief
    in Immortality--Christian Athanatism--Eternal Life--The Day of
    Judgment--Metaphysical Athanatism--Substance of the Soul--Ether
    Souls and Air Souls; Fluid Souls and Solid Souls--Immortality of
    the Animal Soul--Arguments for and Against Athanatism--Athanatist
    Illusions

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Riddle of the Universe at the close of the nineteenth century

The Riddle of the Universe at the close of the nineteenth century

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