The Riddle of the Universe at the Close of the Nineteenth Century

Haeckel, Ernst, 1834-1919Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.8
Word count
682K words
Chapters
69

Tags

English Originals Natural Sciences Philosophical ReflectionCosmologyReligion and ScienceScience EnlightenmentNatural PhilosophyEvolution TheoryIntellectual EnlightenmentAcademic StudyScience ClassicWorldview

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Riddle of the Universe at the close of the nineteenth century by Ernst HaeckelAuthor: Haeckel, Ernst, 1834-1919,Language: English, Class: B: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Release Date: Jun 17, 2013

Editor's review

The Riddle of the Universe at the close of the nineteenth century is Ernst Haeckel's work addressed to general readers on natural philosophy and worldview, issued in English translation by Project Gutenberg. The book attempts to answer the "riddles" of the universe, life, and humanity's place using the natural-scientific knowledge of its day, embodying the way late nineteenth-century popular science and philosophical speculation intertwined. Its value lies not only in its specific conclusions but in showing how an era used the language of science to construct a comprehensive worldview. It is best read as a text in the history of science and ideas rather than as a reliable source of modern scientific conclusions. Haeckel's arguments carry clear limitations of their time, and some views are no longer accepted today; readers should maintain a critical distance. It is suited to close reading by those interested in the history of science, natural philosophy, and the intellectual atmosphere of the nineteenth century.

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Reading tips

  1. Read the preface and table of contents first to grasp the book's framework of questions before entering specific chapters
  2. Mark time-bound assertions as you read, distinguishing historical material from contemporary knowledge
  3. Read alongside a textbook on the history of science or philosophy to understand the debates in which Haeckel was situated
  4. Read selectively by theme rather than page by page, and write brief critical notes afterward

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
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  15. 15
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  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69

FAQ

Are this book's scientific conclusions still reliable today? It should not be read as contemporary scientific conclusions. It reflects the level of knowledge and the style of debate of the late nineteenth century, and some views have been revised or rejected by later research. It is more valuable to understand it within the context of the history of science and ideas.
Can someone without a philosophy background understand it? It can be read, but it requires patience. The book involves comprehensive arguments in natural philosophy and worldview; without background, it is easy to mistake the author's time-bound judgments for universal conclusions. It is advisable first to gain a general understanding of nineteenth-century naturalism and popular science writing.
What reading situations is the English translation suited to? It is suited to selected reading in history of science courses, book club discussion, or self-study of intellectual history. The public-domain electronic text makes it easy to search keywords and to compare different chapters; for classroom use, teachers should supplement historical background and critical explanation.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Haeckel, Ernst, 1834-1919 Author

Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) was a German naturalist and an important popularizer of evolutionary theory. The collection holds 17 of his works, including the two-volume The History of Creation and the second volume of The Evolution of Man, which systematically set out the evolution of life and the descent of humans, as well as The Riddle of the Universe and its English version The Riddle of the Universe at the close of the nineteenth century, the French Les énigmes de l'Univers, and Natur und Mensch, works addressed to a general readership on philosophy and nature. The Last Link: Our Present Knowledge of the Descent of Man likewise extends evolutionary thought to the question of human origins. Public information is limited, but these works show that he was skilled at integrating morphology, embryology and evolutionary theory in broad, sweeping narratives, combining scholarly substance with accessible language. Some of his writings provoked wide discussion and controversy and have had a lasting influence on modern biology and naturalistic worldviews.