The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-09-18
Ernst HaeCkel.
on last Words
on Evolution
BY ERNST HAEcKEL.
CONTINUED from previous issue.l
CHAPTER III.
THE CONTROVERSY OVER THH
SOUL.

TIE GUN hONEkSY OVER In9
SOUL.
The Ideas Of Immortality and God.
THO it was my original intention to
\ deliver only two lectures, / have
been moved by several reasons to add
a supplementary one. In the hrst
place, notice with regret that have
been compelled by pressure OF time
to leave untouched in my earlier lee
turs, or to treat very inadequately,
several important points in my theme;
there is, in particular, the very impor-
tant question of the nature Of the
soul. In the second place, have been
convinced by the many contradictory
press notices during the last few days
that many Of my incomplete observa-
tions have been misunderstood or mis-
interpreted. And, thirdly, it seemed
advisable to give a brief and clear
summary of the whole subject in this
farewell lecture, to take a short sur
yey of the past, present and future of
the theory of evolution, and especially
its relation to the three great ques-
tons of personal Immortality, the free
dom of the will, and the personality Of
God.
must claim the readers patience
and indulgence even to a greater ex-
tent than in the previous chapters, as
the subject is one of the most difficult
and obscure that the human mind ap-
proaches. l have dealt at length in
my recent works, 1.-THE Riddle OF the
Universe" and 1.-THE Wonders Of Life
with the controversial questions Of
biology that / treat cursorily here.
But l would like to put before you
now, in a general survey, the powerful
arguments that modern science en-
ploys against the prevailing supersti-
ton in regard to evolution, and to
show that the Monistic system throws
a clear light on the great questions, of
God and the world, the soul and life.
In the previous chapters have
tried to give general idea OF the
present state of the theory of evolu-
ton and its victorious struggle with
the older legend of creation. We have
seen that even the most advanced or,
ganism, man, was not brought into
being by a creative act, but gradually
developed from a long series of nam
NAL ancestors. We also saw that the
most man-like mammals. the anthro-
poid apes, have substantially the
same structure as man, and that the
evolution of the latter from the former
can now be regarded as fully estab-
lished hypothesis. or, rather, an his
torical fact. But in this study we
had in view mainly the structure Of
| the body and its various organs. We
| touched very briefly on tie evolution
| of the human mind, or the immaterial
soul that dwells in the body for a
time, according to a venerable tradi-
ton. Today we turn chiefly to the
development of the soul, and consider
whether mans mental development is
controlled by the same natural laws
as that of his body, and whether It
also is inseparately bound up with
that of the rest OF the mammals.
At the very threshold Of this DIM
cult province we encounter the cur
ious fact that there are two radically
distinct tendencies in psychology at
our universities today. On one side
we have the metaphysical and pro-
fessional psychologists. They still
cling to the older view that mans
soul is a special entity, a unique IN
dependent individuality, which dwells
| for a time only in the mortal frame,
leaving it and living on as an immor.
! tai spirit after death. This dualistic
theory is connected with the doctrine
of most religions, and owes its high
authority TO the fact that It is associ-
ated with the most important ethical,
social, and practical interests Plato
gave prominence to the idea of the
immortality of the soul in philosophy
long ago. Descartes at a later date
gave emphasis to it by ascribing a
true soul to man alone and refusing
it to the animals. ~
This metaphysical psychology,
which ruled alone for considerable
period, began to be opposed in the
eighteenth, and still more in the nine
teenth, century by comparative psy-
chology An impartial comparison OF
the psychic processes in the higher
and lower animals proved that there
were numerous transitions and gradu-
atoms. A long series OF intermedi.
ate stages connects the psychic life OF
the higher animals with that OF man
ON the one side, and that Of the lower
animals on the other There was no
such thing as sharp dividing line,
as Descartes supposed.