In this paper I want to suggest that the reality of Haeckel's opinions are more subtle than such labels allow for. The charges stem in part from the fact that Haeckel made a very public display of appreciation of the aged Reichskanzler Bismarck after he was dismissed by the new Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1890. But it is also due in part to the fact that Haeckel extended Virchow's original republican cell-state metaphor into a monarchist version, and that he apparently judged the latter organization to be of greater value. This essay provides an explanation of why Haeckel chose to make this distinction between cell states of republican and monarchical organization. It gives a close analysis of the role the political analogies and metaphors associated with the theory of the cell-state played in Haeckel's thought, and in particular how they changed over the span of his professional career. I suggest that his introduction of the monarchist cell-state can be attributed in part to political events going on in the 1870s, but also to empirical observations about real differences in the physiology of different types of organism. Political ideology then may be a relevant factor in understanding Haeckel's particular interpretation of cell theory, as Canguilhem suggested, but it is not wholly sufficient. I also consider Paul Weindling's claims that Haeckel was influenced by the writings of the English philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820--1903) on the tightly integrated nature of social organisms (i.e. multicellular animals), but I suggest there is convincing evidence to show that Haeckel had already arrived at this opinion prior to his becoming acquainted with Spencer's writings, and that he was very likely influenced in this regard by German biologists of an earlier generation. Finally I follow John Pickstone's suggestions for dealing with similar issues concerning politics and biology in early nineteenth-century France to reach some general conclusions about the relationship between Haeckel's political and scientific ambitions.7
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