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| Title | The Riddle of the Universe |
| Author | Haeckel, Ernst / McCabe, Josepth |
| Asset Number | 00284 |
| Publisher | Watts & Co. |
| ISBN | |
| Published Date | 1929 |
| Edition | 1 |
| Printing | 1 |
| Description | Pictorial cloth hardcover.
First published in the Thinker's Library, February 1929.
Riddle of the Universe, The ('Die Weltrasel'), a metaphysical and scientific treatise by Ernst Haeckel, was published in German in 1899 and in an English translation by Joseph McCabe in 1901. An eminent and prolific scientific investigator, a passionate admirer of Darwin, and uniting power of minute research with bold metaphysical speculation, Haeckel put forth this book at the close of a long career of biological discovery, in defense of the extremest form of materialistic monism. From the chemical law of the indestructibility of matter and the physical law of the conservation of energy he formulates the law of substance or "law of the persistence of matter and force"; and he strives to prove that this law is sufficient in itself to account for all known phenomena, material, mental, and spiritual. He holds with Spinoza that matter and energy "are but two inseparable attributes of the one underlying substance." The dualistic idea of a personal God above or outside of Nature, of an immortal soul distinct from the body, and of the freedom of the will undetermined by causality, he regards as delusions, due to a false conception of the central importance of man in the cosmos. An eternal process of evolution and devolution is constantly producing and then destroying the various planetary systems; on one of these planets, the earth, and possibly on all the others, life has arisen and developed, the lower species gradually evolving into higher-all under the impulse of purely mechanical and material forces. Consciousness is a vital property of every living organism and is a purely natural phenomenon. Man's body and soul have arisen by a process of natural evolution from the lowest forms of existence. Ethical principles have evolved from the social necessities of man in association with his fellow men. Dogmatic religion is a hindrance to man's progress, a cause of unhappiness and misery, and above all a delusion. There can be no compromise between Christianity and modern science; the former is based on a mistaken dualistic view of the universe and is essentially hostile to worldly learning, happiness, and progress. Idealistic philosophy and all dualistic systems are equally untenable.
Haeckel is the ablest defender of the materialistic attitude since Darwin, Huxley, and Tyndall, and goes beyond them in the sweeping and positive nature of his opinions. He has a patience of investigation and a wealth of detailed information equal to that of Darwin and a greater metaphysical tendency than his English masters. His great defect is a dogmatism and intolerance quite as marked as that which he attacks. His book has too much the air of having completely solved the whole riddle of the universe. One cannot fail to be impressed, however, with his statement of what materialistic science has accomplished and with the range and grasp of thought with which he marshals it all into a philosophic system. As a writer of polemic he is quite the equal of Huxley and has widely and profoundly influenced German thought. |
| Category | General Science |
| Epoch | Vintage |
| Date Acquired | 21/04/2022 |
| Condition | (1) Fine |
