The Debate Over Evolutionary Theory in Germany
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{'SignBlockName': 'Ronald J. Overmann', 'PO_EMAI': None, 'PO_PHON': None}
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.
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{'Code': '1353', 'Text': 'Hist & Philosophy of SET'}
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