The Theories Of Darwin And Their Relation To Philosophy, Religion, And Morality

Theories of Darwin

AND THEIR RELATION TO President of the Theological Seminary at Schönthal, Würtemberg. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN With an Introduction by...

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THE DUKE OF ARGYLL CHICAGO: JANSEN McCLURG. & COMPANY 1883.

Copyright By Jansen, McClurg &amp; Co . A.D. 1882. R. R. DONNELLEY &amp; SONS, PRINTERS....

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AUTHOR'S PREFACE

The movement which received its impulse as well as its name from Darwin, seems to have recently passed its distinctest phase; but the more prominent points of opposition, religious, ethical, and scientific, which have been revealed through it, remain as sharply contrasted as before. The author of this book desires, in the first place, to be of service to such readers as feel the need of setting themselves right upon these questions, which touch the highest interests of mankind, but who lack time

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AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO AMERICAN EDITION.

Six years have elapsed since I wrote the book which is now going forth in English dress. The great leader of the theories in question has passed away; the waves of thought he set in motion are assuming smoother shape; and I can only add to what I have already written, that not only have I had no occasion to retract any of the statements or views laid down in the book, but I perceive the religious as well as the scientific world growing more and more into accord with the views I have maintained,

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INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION, BY THE DUKE OF ARGYLL.

It is well known that Mr. Darwin's theory on the Origin of Species has been accepted in Germany more widely, with more absolute faith, and with more vehement enthusiasm, than in the country of its birth. In Germany, more conspicuously than elsewhere, it has itself become the subject of developments as strange and as aberrant as any which it assumes in the history of Organic Life. The most extravagant conclusions have been drawn from it—invading every branch of human thought, in Science, in Philo

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NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR.

The consideration which this work has received from the leaders of religious and philosophic thought in Germany, and, indeed, wherever it has been read in its original form, has led the translator to believe that an English version of it would be acceptable. Especially in America, where religious problems and religious thought are so intimately connected with the processes of scientific and philosophic investigation, and where the agitation of these problems is so peculiarly active and violent,

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PART FIRST: THE DARWINIAN THEORIES. BOOK I. THE PURELY SCIENTIFIC THEORIES.

The Scientific Problem, ... 23...

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CHAPTER I.

Rise of the Darwinian Theories. §1. Direct Predecessors, ... 30 §2. Indirect Preparations, ... 33...

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CHAPTER II.

History of the Darwinian Theories. §1. Darwin, ... 38 §2. The Followers of Darwin.—Ernst Häckel, ... 45 §3. Modifications of the Theory.—Moriz Wagner. Wigand, ... 52...

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CHAPTER III.

Present State of the Darwinian Theories. §1. The Theory of Descent, ... 61 §2. The Theory of Evolution.—Archæology, Ethnography, Philology, ... 77 §3. The Theory of Selection, ... 100...

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BOOK II. THE PHILOSOPHIC COMPLETIONS AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE DARWINIAN THEORIES.

The Philosophic Problems, ... 108...

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CHAPTER I.

THE NATURO-PHILOSOPHIC SUPPLEMENTS OF THE DARWINIAN THEORIES. §1. The Origin of Self-Consciousness and of Free Moral Self-Determination, ... 115 §2. The Origin of Sensation and of Consciousness, ... 127 §3. The Origin of Life, ... 132 §4. The Elements of the World; the Theory of Atoms, and the Mechanical View of the World, ... 140...

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CHAPTER II.

METAPHYSICAL CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM THE DARWINIAN THEORIES. §1. Elimination of the Idea of Design in the World.—Monism, ... 158...

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PART SECOND: THE POSITION OF THE DARWINIAN THEORIES IN REFERENCE TO RELIGION AND MORALITY. BOOK I. HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL.

Plan of Treatment, ... 185...

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A. THE DARWINIAN THEORIES AND RELIGION. CHAPTER I.

More Or Less Negative Position in Reference To Religion. §1. Extreme Negation: L. Büchner and Consistent Materialism, ... 188 §2. Replacement of Religion Through a Religious Worship of the Universe.—Strauss. Oskar Schmidt. Häckel, ... 190 §3. Pious Renunciation of the Knowability of God. Wilhelm Bleek. Albert Lange. Herbert Spencer, ... 193 §4. Spinoza and Hegel in the Garb of Darwin.—Carneri, Ed. von Hartmann, ... 203 §5. Reëcho of Negation on the Side of the Christian View of the World, ... 20

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CHAPTER II.

Reform of Religion, or at Least of the Science of Religion, Through Darwinism. §1. Heinrich Lang. Friedrich Vischer. Gustav Jäger, ... 210...

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CHAPTER III.

Peace Between Religion and Darwinism. §1. Darwin. Wallace. Owen. Asa Gray. Mivart. McCosh. Anderson. K. E. von Baer. Alexander Braun. Braubach, and others, ... 217...

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B. THE DARWINIAN THEORIES AND MORALITY.

Preliminary View, ... 228...

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CHAPTER IV.

Antagonism Between Darwinism and Morality. §1. Objections to Darwinism from an Ethical Standpoint, ... 230...

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CHAPTER V.

Reform of Morality Through Darwinism. §1. The Materialists and Monists. Darwin and the English Utilitarians. Gustav Jäger, ... 233...

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CHAPTER VI.

Neutrality and Peace Between Darwinism and Morality. §1. Mivart. Alexander Braun, and others, ... 245...

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BOOK II. ANALYTICAL.

Preliminary View, ... 249...

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A. THE DARWINIAN THEORIES AND RELIGION. CHAPTER I.

The Darwinian Theories and the Theistic View of The World. a. The Position of Purely Scientific Darwinism in Reference to Theism . §1. Scientific Investigation and Theism.—The Idea of Creation, ... 252 §2. The Descent Theory and Theism, ... 259 §3. The Evolution Theory and Theism, ... 263 §4. The Selection Theory and Theism, ... 270 b. The Darwinistic Philosophies in their Position Regarding Theism . §5. The Naturo-Philosophic Supplements of Darwinism and Theism, ... 273 §6. Elimination of the I

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CHAPTER II.

The Darwinian Theories and Positive Christianity. §1. The Creation of the World, ... 290 §2. The Creation of Man, ... 314 §3. The Primitive Condition of Man.—Paradise, the Fall of Man, and Primitive History, ... 321 §4. Providence, Hearing of Prayer, and Miracles, ... 345 §5. The Redeemer and the Redemption, the Kingdom of God, and the Receiving of Salvation, ... 373 §6. Eschatology, ... 375...

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B. THE DARWINIAN THEORIES AND MORALITY. CHAPTER III.

Darwinism and Moral Principles. §1. Darwinistic Naturalism and Moral Principles, ... 379 §2. Scientific Darwinism and Moral Principles, ... 386...

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CHAPTER IV.

Darwinism and Moral Life. §1. Darwinistic Naturalism and Moral Life, ... 391 §2. Scientific Naturalism and Moral Life, ... 396 Conclusion, ... 399...

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AUTHORS CITED.

Agassiz, Louis, 35 , 37 , 50 , 320 . Anderson, 225 . Anonymus, "the Unconscious," etc., 128 , 129 , 131 , 134 , 159 . Anonymus, "Vestiges," etc., 33 . Argyll, Duke of, 50 , 91 , 92 , 135 , 172 , 202 , 288 . Ausland, 159 , 240 , 281 . Baer, Karl Ernst von, 36 , 54 , 56 , 71 , 74 , 81 , 83 , 106 , 132 , 149 , 160 , 177 , 226 , 259 , 281 , 288 , 320 . Barrande, 54 . Baumgärtner, Heinrich, 57 , 176 . Blanchard, Emil, 54 , 106 . Bleek, Wilhelm, 17 , 96 , 97 , 194 , 197 , 234 , 236 . Boerhave, 36 . Br

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PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, AND MORALITY.

INTRODUCTION. With the appearance of Darwin's "Origin of Species," on the 24th of November, 1859, a new impulse began in the intellectual movement of our generation. It is true, the whole theory advocated and inaugurated by Darwin is, in the first place, only one of the many links in the long chain of phenomena in the realm of the intellectual development of our century, all of which have the same character, and give their stamp to the entire mental work of the last decades. This stamp consists

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THE PURELY SCIENTIFIC THEORIES.

THE SCIENTIFIC PROBLEM. The interesting problem which underlies Mr. Darwin's theories is the answer to the question: How did the different species of organic beings on the earth originate? We find ourselves in the midst of an endless variety of organic beings, animals and plants; we see ourselves, so far as regards the entire physical part of our being, in relationship with this organic world—especially with the organization and physical functions of the animal body. The organic individuals come

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CHAPTER I.

RISE OF THE DARWINIAN THEORIES. § 1. Direct Predecessors.—Lamarck. The first man who gave direct expression to the idea of a successive generation of the species through transmutation, and who attempted to follow it up in a scientific way, was the French naturalist and philosopher, Jean Lamarck, born 1744. In the year 1801, and subsequently, he published his views, first in smaller essays and afterward more in detail in his " Philosophie Zoologique ," which appeared in 1809, and in the first vol

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CHAPTER II.

HISTORY OF THE DARWINIAN THEORIES. § 1. Darwin. In order to explain the development of higher species from lower ones in a natural way, Darwin starts from two facts. The first fact is, that all individuals of the same species show, besides their specific similarity, individual differences: a fact which we call the law of individual variability . The other fact is, that each individual inclines to transmit to his offspring all his qualities—not only the characteristics of the species, but also th

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CHAPTER III.

PRESENT STATE OF THE DARWINIAN THEORIES. § 1. The Theory of Descent. The historical retrospect of the Darwinian theories, from their purely scientific side, leads us of itself to a critical review of their present state. We can briefly indicate in advance the result to which it will lead us, viz.: that the descent theory has gained, the selection theory has lost ground, the theory of development oscillates between both; but that all three theories have not yet passed beyond the rank of hypothese

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THE PHILOSOPHIC SUPPLEMENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE DARWINIAN THEORIES.

THE PHILOSOPHIC PROBLEMS. Although, in accordance with the requirements of the task before us, we have to restrict ourselves to giving the results of natural science only in their general outlines, still we believe that we have not overlooked any essential result which is of importance to the question of the origin of species and of man. We have now finished our scientific review; and the conclusion to which we see ourselves brought is that natural science, in its investigation of the origin of

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CHAPTER I.

THE NATURO-PHILOSOPHIC SUPPLEMENTS OF THE DARWINIAN THEORIES. § 1. The Origin of Self-Consciousness and of Free Moral Self-Determination. If sensation, and its most developed form, consciousness, is a reflex of the material in something immaterial, which feels itself a unit in contrast to the material, and, where sensation rises into consciousness, is opposed as a unit to the material—self-consciousness again is the reflex of this sentient and conscious subject in a new and still higher immateri

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CHAPTER II.

METAPHYSICAL CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM THE DARWINIAN THEORIES. § 1. Elimination of the Idea of Design in the World.—Monism. From this mechanical view of the world, quite a peculiar conclusion has been recently drawn—not by Darwin, who does not give any opinion at all about the mechanical view of the world, as such, or about its extension and influence, nor, indeed, by Darwinians, not even by all followers of a mechanical view of the world, but only by a part of them; namely, by those who have in a

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HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL.

PLAN OF TREATMENT. In discussing the conclusions which have been drawn by Darwinism in reference to religion and morality, it would seem appropriate to treat of the two realms together. For the grouping which we have to give to the different conclusions of Darwinian tendencies, in their position in reference to religion, is nearly the same which they also receive in their position in reference to ethical questions. But, nevertheless, we prefer to separate the two questions; not only because in f

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A. THE DARWINIAN THEORIES AND RELIGION. CHAPTER I.

MORE OR LESS NEGATIVE POSITION IN REFERENCE TO RELIGION. § 1. Extreme Negation. L. Büchner and Consistent Materialism. The common point of beginning and attack of all those who take a negative position against religion, is the rejection of teleology. The most advanced of all materialists, Ludwig Büchner, in his self-criticism, which he gives in his "Natur und Wissenschaft" ("Nature and Science"), on page 465, openly declares, and quite correctly, that with the success or failure of the attacks u

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CHAPTER II.

REFORM OF RELIGION, OR AT LEAST OF THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION, THROUGH DARWINISM. § 1. Heinrich Lang, Friedrich Vischer, Gustav Jäger. In passing on to those who in Darwinism do not see a negation but a reformation of religion, or at least of theology, we first meet Heinrich Lang, the late spiritual leader of the "Reformtheologie" in Switzerland. He treats of "Die Religion im Zeitalter Darwins" ("Religion in the Age of Darwin") in Holtzendorff's and Oncken's "Deutsche Zeit- und Streitfragen," Jahrg

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CHAPTER III.

PEACE BETWEEN RELIGION AND DARWINISM. § 1. Darwin, Wallace, R. Owen, Asa Gray, Mivart, McCosh, Anderson, K. E. v. Baer, Alex. Braun, Braubach, etc. It still remains for us to take a glance at those who think religion and Darwinism, and Christianity and Darwinism, hold toward one another reciprocally amicable relations. In the first place, we have to mention Darwin himself. In his earliest work, "Origin of Species," he repeatedly gives this opinion, as on page 421: "I see no good reason why the v

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B. THE DARWINIAN THEORIES AND MORALITY.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. We can treat much more briefly of this portion of our task than of the position of the Darwinians in reference to the religious question, for the reason that the contrasts in the ethical realm are far less sharply drawn than in the religious realm, although in principle they are not less widely apart. For while there are a great many men who think that it belongs to good society and to the indispensable characteristics of high modern education to show either cold indifference o

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CHAPTER IV.

ANTAGONISM BETWEEN DARWINISM AND MORALITY. § 1. Objections to Darwinism from an Ethical Standpoint. From what we said at the beginning of the preceding preliminary view, it is evident that we have to look for the advocates of an irreconcilableness between morality and Darwinism, not in the camp of the followers of the latter, but only in that of its adversaries. It is true, such advocates were never wanting. In pamphlets and journals, it has been often enough said that Darwinism cuts through the

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CHAPTER V.

REFORM OF MORALITY THROUGH DARWINISM. § 1. The Materialists and Monists. Darwin and the English Utilitarians. Gustav Jäger. Among those who ascribe to Darwinism a morally reforming influence, we have to mention in the first place the materialists . It is true that even before the appearance of Darwinism they established their own moral principle of naturalistic determinism and of the education of man only by science and enlightenment, in opposition to a morality which rests on the principle of t

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CHAPTER VI.

NEUTRALITY AND PEACE BETWEEN DARWINISM AND MORALITY. § 1. Mivart, Alex. Braun, and Others. Evidently a real neutrality between the Darwinian theories of development and the hitherto valid and absolute authority of the moral principle is possible only, when we deny that the ethical demand is simply a natural process—although we may perceive its origin within the limits of a natural process—and when we fail to identify that demand with this process, and do not deduce it from the latter as its suff

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ANALYTICAL.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. In treating the religious question, we proceed from the supposition that religion is concerned not only in this subjective truth of religious impulse and sensation, but also in the objective truth and reality of its faith, although it attains these in a different way from natural science. A religion which should have the authorization of its existence only in psychology, and which was not allowed to ask whether the object of its faith also has objective reality, would stand on

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A. THE DARWINIAN THEORIES AND RELIGION. CHAPTER I.

THE DARWINIAN THEORIES AND THE THEISTIC VIEW OF THE WORLD. A. The Position of Purely Scientific Darwinism in Reference to Theism. § 1. Scientific Investigation and Theism. The Idea of Creation. At the very beginning of our investigation, we have to state that the absolute freedom of scientific investigation lies not only in the interest of natural science, but just as clearly in the direct interest of religion; and that every attempt at limiting the freedom of scientific investigation in a prete

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A. The Darwinistic Philosophemes in Their Position Regarding Theism.

§ 5. The Naturo-Philosophic Supplements of Darwinism and Theism. We still have to discuss the position of theism in reference to the philosophic problems to which a Darwinistic view of nature sees itself led, and in the first place its position in reference to the naturo-philosophic theories with which the descent idea tries to complete itself. In the first part of our book, we have found that not a single one of the naturo-philosophic problems before which the descent idea places us, is really

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CHAPTER II.

THE DARWINIAN THEORIES AND POSITIVE CHRISTIANITY. § 1. The Creation of the World. Now that we have come to a clear understanding of the position of the Darwinian theories in reference to the basis of all religion and of all living religiousness, to theism in general, it remains to be seen what position those of the theories which are reconcilable with theism take in reference to the positive Christian view of the world. We naturally omit all those objects and parts of Christian dogmatics which h

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B. THE DARWINIAN THEORIES AND MORALITY. CHAPTER III.

DARWINISM AND MORAL PRINCIPLES. § 1. Darwinistic Naturalism and Moral Principles. If we consider the ethical consequences of a view of the world which, proceeding from Darwinism, permits the universe, man included, to be taken up into a mechanism of atoms—a mechanism in which everything, even the ethical action of man, finds its sufficient explanation—we certainly cannot perceive how such a view of the world is able to arrive at firm moral principles. If man, even in his spiritual life and moral

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CHAPTER IV.

DARWINISM AND MORAL LIFE. § 1. Darwinistic Naturalism and Moral Life. Precisely the same relationship between Darwinism and morality, which we found in treating of moral principles, presents itself when we ask about the relationship of Darwinistic ideas and moral life in its concrete reality. He who builds a system of monistic naturalism upon his Darwinism, if he is logical, and not better than his system, comes into inevitable collision with concrete moral life; while he who limits his Darwinis

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CONCLUSION.

If now, having reached our goal, we look back upon the way which we have traversed, we find a justification of the regret expressed at the beginning, that a scientific treatment of religion and morality is compelled to take a position in regard to theories which are not yet established. We found the most different problems—scientific, naturo-philosophical, metaphysical, religious and ethical—inextricably mixed, and were obliged, as one of our first tasks, to make an attempt at finding the clew a

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Notes

[1] "The International Scientific Series." No. XIII . [2] "Evolution of Man." [3] It was only when the manuscript of this work was nearly finished and the first part of it had gone to the press, that the author received the second part of K. E. von Baer's " Studien aus dem Gebiete der Naturwissenschaften " (Studies in the Realm of Natural Sciences). It contains another essay on teleology, " Ueber Zielstrebigkeit in den organischen Körpern insbesondere ," and a treatise on Darwin's doctrine, " Ue

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