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World riddle


The term "world riddle" or "world-riddle" has been associated, for over 100 years, with Friedrich Nietzsche (who mentioned Welträthsel in several of his writings) and with the biologist-philosopher Ernst Haeckel, who, as a professor of zoology at the University of Jena, wrote the book Die Welträthsel in 1895–1899, in modern spelling Die Welträtsel (German "The World-riddles"), with the English version published under the title The Riddle of the Universe, 1901.

The term "world riddle" concerns the nature of the universe and the meaning of life.

The question and answer of the World Riddle has also been examined as an inspiration or allegorical meaning within some musical compositions, such as the unresolved harmonic progression at the end of "Also sprach Zarathustra" (1896) by composer Richard Strauss, made famous in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Friedrich Nietzsche referred to the "World Riddle" (Welträthsel) in several of his writings; however, his direct influence was limited to a few years, by his failing health.

Ernst Haeckel viewed the World Riddle as a dual-question of the form, "What is the nature of the physical universe and what is the nature of human thinking?" which he explained would have a single answer since humans and the universe were contained within one system, a mono-system, as Haeckel wrote in 1895:

Haeckel had written that human behavior and feeling could be explained, within the laws of the physical universe, as "mechanical work of the ganglion-cells" as stated.

The philosopher William James in his book Pragmatism (1907) wrote about the world-riddle, as follows:


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