Some Contextually-Ideological Aspects of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution with Respect to Its Origin and Promotion

Autor u radu razmatra svjetonazorske aspekte Darwinove teorije evolucije, kako s obzirom na njezin nastanak tako i s obzirom na njezinu kasniju filozofsko-socijalnu interpretaciju. Prvi dio rada želi ukazati na činjenicu da su u stvaranju teorije evolucije, osim čisto znanstvenih, snažnu ulogu igrali i svjetonazorsko-socijalni elementi na kojima je Darwin aktivno participirao. Tu činjenicu autor na poseban način ističe znakovitim pojmom „kontekstualna obojenost“ Darwinove teorije evolucije. U daljnjem dijelu rada poseban se naglasak stavlja na interpretaciju temeljnih postavki teorije evolucije, odnosno njezino promoviranje na opće-društvenoj razini. Autor ovdje dolazi do zaključka da je ovo tumačenje nosilo snažan instrumentalizirajući i ideologizirajući karakter. Kao primjer prvoga (instrumentalizirajućega) autor donosi Ernsta Haeckela i njegov radikalno materijalizirajući pogled na svijet u svjetlu Darwinove teorije, dok je kao primjer drugoga (ideologizirajućega) aspekta izabrao marksističku recepciju teorije evolucije, koja je u njoj vidjela snažnu potporu svojega viđenja svijeta i društva. I jedan i drugi primjer očituju proizvoljno tumačenje temeljnih postavki teorije evolucije, izvlačeći ih iz njihova konteksta. Razmatranje autor završava zaključnim uvidima, usputno ukazujući da od instrumentalizirajućega i ideologizirajućega interpretiranja evolucionističkih postavki nije lišeno ni suvremeno doba.In his paper the author examines worldview aspects of Darwin’s theory of evolution with respect to both its origin and its later philosophical and social interpretation. Therefore, the first part of the paper wants to point out the fact that, besides the purely scientific elements, there were other worldview and social elements in which Darwin actively participated that played an important role in creating the theory of evolution. The author places special emphasis to this fact by using the indicative term “contextual colouring” of Darwin’s theory of evolution. The author moves on with special emphasis to the interpretation of fundamental principles of the theory of evolution, that is, its promotion on the general social level. The author comes to the conclusion that this interpretation had a strong instrumentalizing and ideologizing character. As an example of the first (instrumentalizing), the author mentions Ernst Haeckel and his radically materializing world view in the light of Darwin’s theory, and for the latter (ideologizing) aspect, he chose the Marxist reception of the theory of evolution, which saw in it a strong support for its vision of the world and society. Both examples manifest an arbitrary interpretation of fundamental principles of the theory of evolution by pulling them out of their context. The author concludes his analysis with some final insights in which he puts great emphasis to the fact that these instrumentalizing and ideologizing interpretations of evolutionary principles are also present in modern times, in connection with which he (only) mentions the most prominent advocate of this approach, Richard Dawkins