Science in education: The Reception of Ernst Haeckel’s ideas

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleΟι φυσικές επιστήμες στην εκπαίδευση: Η πρόσληψη των ιδεών του Ernst Haeckel
3. Language term Greek, Modern (1453-)
4. lemma author Katsiampoura, Gianna
5. lemma category Scientific theories and disciplines > Biology:evolution
6. Publication date 02-2017-Various approaches to the problem of correlation between science and theology
7. lemma work Evolution
8. lemma manifestations Οι φυσικές επιστήμες στην εκπαίδευση: Η πρόσληψη των ιδεών του Ernst Haeckel (Science in education: The Reception of Ernst Haeckel’s ideas)
9. Citations
   1. <p>Kyriakou, Kyriakos (2014), Οι φυσικές επιστήμες στην εκπαίδευση: Η πρόσληψη των ιδεών του Ernst Haeckel (Science in education: The Reception of Ernst Haeckel’s ideas), PhD Thesis, University of Athens, Athens</p>
10. Lemma body

    1. This PhD thesis studies the reactions and the controversies that emerged on the grounds of the publication of Haeckel’s theories and views among certain groups of intellectuals, as well as, the effects that they had in the Greek public from 1870’s to the 1930’s. Furthermore, it studies how Haeckel’s ideas on evolution appeared in all three levels of education from the19th century until the late 20th century. Our findings can be summarized as follows: The background of the controversies between the opponents and the supporters of Haeckel’s theories in Greece is philosophical materialism. Haeckel’s views are treated as materialistic. However, the term “materialism” is given various and, to a great extent, diverging meanings. The main opponents of Haeckel’s views are theologians, while the main supporters are professors as well as graduates of the Medical School of the University of Athens. The arguments used by both sides are basically a reproduction of the arguments of European scientists and other intellectuals of the same period. The controversy on Haeckel’s ideas is about the demarcation of the boundaries between science and religion and is not an expression of a conflict between politically progressive and conservative scholars. The conflict, essentially, took place between conservative theologians and conservative members of the scientific community. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Haeckel’s ideas are of interest to the students of the University of Athens and influence many of them. The professors that are seemingly most influenced are R. Nicolaidis and Sp. Miliarakis. In the second half of the 20th century, the biogenetic law formulated by Haeckel was cited by several authors of Greek secondary education textbooks as an indication and not as proof of the theory of evolution, but with a number of reservations for its validity. Since the late 1990’s and onwards, references of the biogenetic law in secondary education school textbooks ceased to exist.