Ernst Haeckel 
The Riddle of the Universe (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) 
At the Close of the Nineteenth Century

This 1901 monograph sets forth Haeckel’s philosophical conviction that the riddle of the physical universe and that of human intellect are one and the same, and must have the same answer.  A thorough going monist, Haeckel typifies a historically important point of view: that of unabashed confidence in the ability of western science to solve all of life’s mysteries.

About the author

Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) was a German biologist and artist who championed Darwin’s theory of evolution.  He was a proponent of the recapitulation theory, summarized in his pithy phrase ‘ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny’—i.e., the development of the individual reproduces in miniature that of the species as a whole.  Haeckel also discovered thousands of new species, coined many biological terms, and produced artwork of land and sea creatures.