Het lamarckisme van J.A. Bierens de Haan (1883-1958)

Abstract

J.A. Bierens de Haan's Lamarckism Peter Bowler has shown that at the turn of the century neo-Lamarckism flourished in western Europe and the United States. With regard to neo-Lamarckism in the Netherlands little is known. The aim of this article is to examine the thoughts of the most outspoken Dutch neo-Lamarckist, the animal psychologist J.A. Bierens de Haan. I argue that his thoughts on the subject are somewhat superficial and only vaguely expressed. They stem from a moral conviction and not so much from scientific considerations. In the work of two contemporaries, H.J. Jordan and F.J.J. Buytendijk, who possibly exerted influence on Bierens de Haan, sympathy for the Lamarckian hypothesis is also evident. They were however no Lamarckians. Their common characteristic was a strong opposition to the materialistic Darwinist world picture of the German philosopher Ernst Haeckel. While this may have been a general feature of anti-Darwinism in the Netherlands and may have led to a Lamarckist belief, a trend of scientific neo-Lamarckism seems not to have existed.