The Reception of Ernest Haeckel’s Ideas in Greece

Abstract

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Ernst Haeckel gained recognition as a scientist and a philosopher whose entire work revolved around Darwin’s theory. He contributed to the dissemination of Darwinian theory in the German lands and in France, but also in many other countries, like early modern Greece, which were under the cultural influence of the French and the Germans. The Darwinian theory Haeckel promoted was a patchwork of both Darwin’s ideas and his own. Moreover, Haeckel put forward a philosophical system he called Monism, which aimed to replace all religions. Haeckel’s ideas were introduced in Greece during the second half of the 19th century, along with Darwin’s theory, and because the two were introduced together, often Haeckelian ideas were mistakenly attributed to Darwin. Haeckel’s ideas were promoted mainly by faculty and students of the University of Athens (the only Greek university at the time), who were championing a mechanistic view of the world. On the other hand, their adversaries were not only theologians but also secular scholars. Haeckel’s ideas reemerged in Greece in the second decade of the 20th century, and paved the way for the introduction of dialectical materialism.