BIOSYSTEMATISTS Meeting, April 18th, 2002, at the California Academy of Sciences

Program: Starting at 7 PM, Benoit Dayrat, postdoc, will speak on "What did Haeckel really mean by "Phylogeny". He works at the California Academy of Sciences, Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology. He works on Mollusks (Gastropoda, Opisthobranchia) and history of sciences. Benoit will be introduced by Terry Gosliner.

ABSTRACT: Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) always claimed to be a Darwinian, at such an extent that he was called the "German Darwin". If he is has been loyal to the natural selection all his life, Haeckel has also been influenced by others authors, mainly Lamarck and Goethe. It is particularly obvious for his concept of "phylogeny" and also for his "monistic philosophy" that constitutes the context in which he did all his scientific works. This talk will try to show what Haeckel meant by "phylogeny" and to show the relation between this concept and the monistic philosophy.