Haeckelian Monism

Haeckel's monism was aimed directly at theological dualism: 'Dualism, in the widest sense, breaks up the universe into two entirely distinct substances—the material world and an immaterial God. Monism, on the contrary, recognises one sole substance in the universe, which is at once God and nature; body and spirit (or matter and energy) it holds to be inseparable.' Die Welträtsel sold over half a million copies in Germany and was translated into more than two dozen languages. The philosophical position is uncomfortable now for reasons Haeckel could not have anticipated. It dissolves the categorical line between biological and artificial intelligence—denying the consolation that whatever AI can do, it is not really thinking. On the monist framework, the distinction between 'real' intelligence and 'simulated' intelligence is a human projection onto a reality that does not contain it.