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First used academically by F. Galton (1883), the term “eugenics” denotes the attempt to protect the race against degeneration and damage (negative eugenics) and to achieve and, if possible, enhance its development (positive eugenics). Synonyms in various time periods have been “racial hygiene” (A. Ploetz in 1895, dropped after 1945), “propagation hygiene,” and “heredity hygiene.” Means of negative eugenics are birth control, isolation, and sterilization, while education and marriage and family counseling are means of positive eugenics. The eugenic a…

1. Term The term “worldview” covers many different ways of viewing the world. It is used for views, pictures, images, concepts, and orientations toward the world, as suggested by the various Ger. terms Weltanschauung, Weltansicht, Weltbeschreibung, Weltbild, and Weltorientierung. Note also the Fr. science générale (C. H. Saint-Simon [1760–1825]), esprit positif (A. Comte [1798–1857]), and conscience collective (É. Durkheim [1858–1917]), as well as the Eng. “outlooks on life” (J. Dewey [1859–1952]). 1.1. Model of Interpretation The term “worldview,” or Weltanschauung, serve…

Many thousands of hereditary human ailments and characteristics are now known to be due to changes in specific genes. Human genetics studies their causes and transmission. Prognosis is possible on the basis of diagnosis and family histories. Under certain conditions the probability of gene and chromosome distribution and thus of genetic sickness in the next generation may be calculated. During pregnancy prenatal diagnosis (e.g., by amniocentesis in the 16th to the 17th week, by analysis of the chorionic villi during the 8th to 11th weeks, or by other proce…

[German Version] (Dec 27, 1571, Weil der Stadt – Nov 15, 1630, Regensburg), astronomer, philosopher, theologian of nature, champion and extender of the Copernican system (N. Copernicus). After uncompleted study of theology in 1594, Kepler taught mathematics in Graz. There in 1595 he discovered what he called and published as the Mysterium cosmographicum (21621): between the orbits of the (six known) planets (Constellations), the five regular Platonic solids can be inscribed and their spacing explained – for him, knowledge of God's plan of creation…

[German Version] I. Science – II. Philosophy of Religion – III. Systematic Theology – IV. Ethics I. Science Although Darwinism may be thought of as referring to the version of evolutionary theory originating from C.R. Darwin (Desmond & Moore), it is in reality, however, difficult to agree on any more precise definition. Darwin's own works on evolution involved several different mechanisms for br…

[German Version] I. Terminology – II. Philosophy of Religion – III. Psychology and Psychology of Religion I. Terminology The Latin terms explicatio and evolutio originally referred to the unfolding or evolvement of something already existing (including the sense of maturation), later also to the origination of something new, growth and differentiation, i.e. mostly to all forms of orderly change that is regarded positively …

[German Version] I. History and Cosmology – II. Religious Studies – III. Evolution and Creation – IV. Social Sciences – V. Ethics I. History and Cosmology The significance of the notion of evolution as a historical process taking place through the interaction of contingent factors and regular laws first attracted attention in 18th-century geology, where it served to mediate between the theory of uniformity, espoused by James Hutton (…

[German Version] (May 1, 1881, Sarcenat, near Clermont-Ferrand – Apr 10, 1955, New York), paleontologist and theologian. Teilhard joined the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1899. After studying philosophy in Jersey, he taught physics in Cairo. He studied theology in Hastings, in England, from 1908 to 1912 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1911. His acceptance of the theory of evolution and his attempt incorporate it into theology (as in La vie cosmique, 1916) met with hostility on the part of the order. His military service as a stretcher-bearer from 1914 to 1919 w…

[German Version] The “Keplerbund for the promoting of cognitive insights into nature among all our people” was established in 1907 in Frankfurt am Main (seat in Bad Godesberg) by the botanist Eberhard Dennert in order to counter the activities of E. Haeckel's “German Monist League.” Its goal was the “correct presentation of modern research results” in conjunction with the preservation of the “unconditional freedom of science” and the simultaneous recognition of religion. Its publication organ from 1909 onward was the monthly journal Unsere Welt (banned in 1941). On the basis o…

[German Version] I. Philosophy The word Weltbild (“worldview”; more lit. “world picture”) is already found in early medieval German; it is defined as a “conceptual view of the world that emerges from the totality of impressions made by the world and ideas of one’s Weltanschauung” ( DWb 28 [14.1.1], 1955, 1553). Its meaning is thus related to the meaning of Weltanschauung . Philosophy usually treats both together. A Weltbild can be understood as both a premise and a product of a Weltanschauung. W. Dilthey called a Weltbild “the basis of one’s appreciation of life and understanding…