Oldal 238 [238]
OCR
HENDRIK VANMASSENHOVE der Organismenwelt) in 1868. Although Darwins On the Origin of Species came out in 1859, it took some time before his ideas were fully accepted in the academic world. Lotze did know of Darwins evolutionary theory, and spoke of it during his course of lectures. Although he did not criticise it, he emphasised the spiritual origin of man. According to Max Wentscher (1862-1942), Lotze accepted that in the lower species there must be changes in the genes caused by the necessity to survive and procreate.” Even now new varieties come into existence. But he also pointed out that for the higher organisms, such “illegitimate” forms were never observed. His statements are very cringing. On the one hand he does not contradict scientific data, on the other hand he attempts to save as much as possible of his religious premises. Merz remarked that Lotze did not do full justice to the philosophical ideas contained in Darwinism,”’ or that he did not rightly estimate the importance of it. He termed Lotze preevolutionary. Moreover for Lotze the validity of a statement is not dependent upon temporal but on logical evidence”®. CONCLUSION It would be merely speculative to transfer the thoughts of Lotze into the twentyfirst century. Would he be able to maintain a non-Positivistist conception of the sciences in accordance with Protestant or, more generally, religious thinking? Moreover, the Idealistic premises of his system would not charm contemporary scientists. Nevertheless, it is clear that Lotze had a huge influence and that this influence has not yet been extinguished. 2° WENTSCHER, Max, Fechner und Lotze, Miinchen, Ernst Reinhardt, 1925, 101-102. 2? MERZ, History of European Thought, Vol. 4, 227. 28 Ibid., 753. + 236 +
