The Riddle of the Universe at the close of the nineteenth century

"The Riddle of the Universe at the Close of the Nineteenth Century" by Ernst Haeckel is a scientific publication written in the late 19th century. This work explores the intricate relationship between biology, philosophy, and the cosmos, presenting a comprehensive inquiry into the prevailing doubts and mysteries of existence as perceived in Haeckel's time. The book emphasizes the importance of empirical investigation and proposes a monistic philosophy that seeks to unify nature, science, and human understanding. The opening of the book unfolds with Haeckel's assertion of a significant transformation in knowledge and thought by the end of the 19th century. He portrays a duality in progress: while science has advanced tremendously, especially in revealing the workings of the universe and biological processes, societal, moral, and spiritual realms seem stagnant or regressive. Haeckel introduces the "world-riddles," a series of great enigmas regarding existence that challenge humanity’s understanding, and he outlines his philosophical stance that combines scientific observations with a monistic interpretation of nature. The reader is invited to contemplate elements like evolution, the nature of life, and humanity’s place within the broader context of the cosmos, framing the quest for answers as both a scientific and existential pursuit. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms and coined many terms in biology, including ecology, phylum, phylogeny, and Protista. Haeckel promoted and popularised Charles Darwin's work in Germany and developed the influential but no longer widely held recapitulation theory claiming that an individual organism's biological development, or ontogeny, parallels and summarises its species' evolutionary development, or phylogeny.