The Debate Over Evolutionary Theory in Germany

在过去的几年里，我们目睹了科学、宗教、哲学和政治在许多领域的冲突，但没有一个领域比进化论更激烈。事实上，进化论和创世论的反“理论”的教学已经得到了两个州立法机构的支持，似乎得到了美国一位总统的支持，但遭到了包括美国最高法院在内的联邦法院系统的拒绝。这场争论在美国并不新鲜，这是众所周知的--20世纪20年代在田纳西州发生的S案就是这种冲突的一个例子。在英国，“索比·萨姆”主教威尔伯福斯和托马斯·赫胥黎之间关于进化论的辩论是科学和宗教在进化论上冲突的又一个臭名昭著的例子。然而，这些冲突并不局限于英语世界。考察这些冲突，对于我们理解科学和宗教这两种信仰体系之间的关系，既有指导意义，又有重要意义。理查兹教授正在关注德国的这样一场辩论。世纪之交刚过，欧洲著名达尔文主义者恩斯特·海克尔和耶稣会昆虫学家埃里希·瓦斯曼举行了一系列戏剧性的辩论，这些辩论的不同主题概括了之前的争议，并在接下来的十年里在德国知识界产生了回响。理查兹教授将利用辩论作为一种组织手段来研究海克尔和瓦斯曼的文化和科学发展，特别是关注经验科学、宗教、哲学和政治在他们各自的进化论形成中的作用。这项研究将允许进入围绕海克尔发展的几个争议--他对人类进化的理论飞跃的系统研究；以及他的一元论哲学观点和德国一元论联盟的建立(以及它与纳粹的联系)。同样，理查兹教授将继续研究瓦斯曼向进化论的显著转变，并评估它在天主教会和科学界引发的惊慌失措的浪潮。这些个人历史将建立在进化论思想更广泛地侵入德国及其引发的文化反应的背景下。这段历史还将被用来解决历史和哲学中的几个更广泛的问题--特别是现实主义者和相对主义者在解释科学时的多方面争论，以及历史记述中叙述的解释力的历史学问题。这项研究将使用两个重要的未出版手稿和论文储存库--德国民主共和国耶拿的海克尔档案馆和荷兰马斯特里赫特的瓦斯曼档案馆。

Over the past several years, we have witnessed the conflict of science, religion, philosophy and politics in a number of areas, but in no area more dramatically than in evolutionary theory. Indeed, teaching of both evolution and the counter "theory" of creationism has been endorsed by two state legislatures, seemingly supported by a president of the United States, but rejected by the federal court system including the Supreme Court of the United States. That this debate is not new in the United States is well known -- the "Scopes Monkey Trial" in Tennessee in the 1920's is just one example of this conflict. The debate in England on the theory of evolution between Bishop "Soapy Sam" Wilberforce and Thomas Huxley is another infamous example of the conflicts between science and religion over this theory. Yet these conflicts were not confined to the English speaking world. It is both instructive and important for our understanding of the relationships between these two belief systems, science and religion, to examine these conflicts. Professor Richards is looking at such a debate in Germany. Just after the turn of the century, Europe's leading Darwinist, Ernst Haeckel, and the Jesuit entomologist Erich Wasmann held a series of dramatic debates whose various themes recapitulated previous controversies and whose echoes reverberated through the German intellectual community during the next decade. Professor Richards will use the debates as an organizing device to investigate the cultural and scientific development of Haeckel and Wasmann, particularly focusing on the roles of empirical science, religion, philosophy, and politics in the formation of their respective theories of evolution. The study will allow entry into the several controversies that surrounded Haeckel's development--his systematic studies of theoretical leaps into human evolution; and his monistic philosophical views and founding of the German Monist League (and its connection with the Nazis). Likewise, Professor Richards will pursue Wasmann's remarkable conversion to evolutionary theory and gauge the tidal-waves of consternation it produced both in the Catholic Church and in the scientific community. These individual histories will be constructed against a background of the more general incursion of evolutionary though into Germany and the cultural reaction that it provoked. This history will be used also to come to terms with several broader issues in history and philosophy-- particularly the multifaceted dispute between realists and relativists in their interpretation of science and the historiographic problem of the explanatory power of narrative in historical accounts. The research will use two important repositories of unpublished manuscripts and papers--the Haeckel archives in Jena, German Democratic Republic, and the Wasmann archives in Maastricht, the Netherlands.