Ernst Haeckel and the Theory of the Cell State: Remarks on the History of a Bio-Political Metaphor (2008)
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
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Henning Hufnagel;
Robert Matthias Erdbeer;
Fank Jäger;
Nicolas Wanlin;
(2016)
Die „Erhaltung der Fühlung“. Haeckels Seelenzellen und der Stil der Esoterischen Moderne
(/isis/citation/CBB669479780/)
Article
Reynolds, Andrew;
Hülsmann, Norbert;
(2008)
Ernst Haeckel's Discovery of Magosphaera planula: A Vestige of Metazoan Origins?
(/isis/citation/CBB000931573/)
Essay Review
James E. Strick;
(2019)
Metaphors and Other Slippery Creatures
(/isis/citation/CBB684419484/)
Article
Reynolds, Andrew;
(2007)
The Cell's Journey: From Metaphorical to Literal Factory
(/isis/citation/CBB001021848/)
Article
Richards, Robert J.;
(2007)
Ernst Haeckel's Alleged Anti-Semitism and Contributions to Nazi Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001230135/)
Article
Pereira Martins, Lilian Al-Chueyr;
(2011)
O papel do núcleo na herança (1870--1900), um estudo de caso: A teoria dos idioblastos de O. Hertwig
(/isis/citation/CBB001212032/)
Article
Richmond, Marsha L.;
(2000)
T. H. Huxley's Criticism of German Cell Theory: An Epigenetic and Physiological Interpretation of Cell Structure
(/isis/citation/CBB000111748/)
Article
Ludwig, David;
(2013)
Mediating Objects: Scientific and Public Functions of Models in Nineteenth-Century Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001320174/)
Article
Stefan Wogawa;
(2020)
„Sofort reiste ich nach Jena“ Die gescheiterte Promotion von Karl Kautsky bei Ernst Haeckel
(/isis/citation/CBB800671190/)
Book
Gliboff, Sander;
(2008)
H. G. Bronn, Ernst Haeckel, and the Origins of German Darwinism: A Study in Translation and Transformation
(/isis/citation/CBB000850350/)
Article
Hauke Heidenreich;
(2023)
Protestantischer Atheismus?: Ernst Haeckels Monismus zwischen Wissenschaft und Machtpolitik (Protestant atheism?: Ernst Haeckel's monism between science and power politics)
(/isis/citation/CBB539370665/)
Article
Wegener, Daan;
(2011)
“Das politische Welträtsel”: Ernst Haeckel en het Duitse liberalisme 1859--1900
(/isis/citation/CBB001251338/)
Article
Hopwood, Nick;
(2015)
The Cult of Amphioxus in German Darwinism; or, Our Gelatinous Ancestors in Naples' Blue and Balmy Bay
(/isis/citation/CBB001510262/)
Book
Groeben, Christiane;
Kaasch, Joachim;
Kaasch, Michael;
(2005)
Stätten biologischer Forschung: Beiträge zur 12. Jahrestagung der DGGTB in Neapel 2003
(/isis/citation/CBB000770191/)
Article
Ghesquier, Danièle;
(2002)
La centrifugation et la cellule: la déconstruction du protoplasme entre 1880 et 1910
(/isis/citation/CBB000770937/)
Book
Benny Shilo;
(2014)
Life's Blueprint: The Science and Art of Embryo Creation
(/isis/citation/CBB088969067/)
Book
Johach, Eva;
(2008)
Krebszelle und Zellenstaat: Zur medizinischen und politischen Metaphorik in Rudolf Virchows Zellularpathologie
(/isis/citation/CBB000953296/)
Book
Preuss, Dirk;
Hossfeld, Uwe;
Breidbach, Olaf;
(2006)
Anthropologie nach Haeckel
(/isis/citation/CBB000774412/)
Article
Nickelsen, Kärin;
(2008)
Ein bisher unbekanntes Zeitzeugnis: Otto Warburgs Tagebuchnotizen von Februar--April 1945
(/isis/citation/CBB000930724/)
Article
Allchin, Douglas;
(2008)
Marxism and Cell Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001221089/)
Be the first to comment!