Herring, E and Radick, G (2019) Emergence in Biology: From Organicism to Systems Biology. In: Gibb, S, Hendry, RF and Lancaster, T, (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Emergence. Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy . Routledge , Abingdon, Oxon, UK , pp. 352-362. ISBN 9781138925083
Abstract
The nature of biology’s connection with the physical sciences and, relatedly, the status of biology as a science in its own right were common themes in the reflective writings of early twentieth-century biologists. One stimulus was the apparent success of mechanical explanation in the rapidly professionalizing biology of the later nineteenth century, notably in embryology, physiology, biochemistry, animal behaviour and – most famously – evolution. A great deal of early twentieth-century organism-centred biology in Germany and Austria, as well as in Germanophile British and American biology, continued a tradition of romantic holism tracing back to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s appropriation of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Goethe, inventor of morphology, was particularly impressed with Kant’s definition of organisms as self-generating, self-organising wholes. The French philosopher Henri Bergson’s metaphysically rich interpretation of biological evolution, developed in L’Evolution Creatrice, had enormous appeal across professional biology, from the neo-Darwinian end through to the neo-Lamarckian end.
Metadata
Item Type: | Book Section |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Editors: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 selection and editorial matter, Sophie Gibb, Robin Findlay Hendry, and Tom Lancaster; individual chapters, the contributors. This is an author produced version of a book chapter published in The Routledge Handbook of Emergence. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science (Leeds) > School of Philosophy (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 19 Nov 2018 13:51 |
Last Modified: | 04 May 2022 08:47 |
Published Version: | https://www.routledge.com/9781138925083 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Routledge |
Series Name: | Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy |
Identification Number: | 10.4324/9781315675213-29 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:138755 |