Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Adolf Meyer-Abich, Holism, and the Negotiation of Theoretical Biology

  • Historical Essay
  • Published:
Biological Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Adolf Meyer-Abich (1893–1971; known as Adolf Meyer before 1938) spent his career as one of the most vigorous and varied advocates in the biological sciences. Primarily a philosophical proponent of holistic thought in biology, he also sought through collaboration with empirically oriented colleagues in biology, medicine, and even physics (including C. J. van der Klaauw, Karl Kotschau, Hans Boker, Jakob von Uexkull, and Pascual Jordan) to develop arguments against mechanistic and reductionistic positions in the life sciences, and to integrate them into a newly disciplinary theoretical biology. He participated in major publishing efforts including the founding of Acta Biotheoretica. He also sought international contacts and worked for long stretches in Chile, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and the United States. His career straddled the Nazi period, which led him into a complex dance of support for and resistance to the regime. Despite the relative failure of his conceptual innovations (e.g., “holobiosis” and “holistic simplification”) to catch on, his ideas and writings sit squarely within the trajectory of thought and argument that has led to today’s reinvigoration of thought about conceptual integration in evolutionary developmental biology.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allen GE (2007) A century of evo-devo: The dialectics of analysis and synthesis in twentieth-century life science. In: From Embryology to Evo-Devo: A History of Developmental Evolution (Laubichler MD, Maienschein J, eds), 123–167. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Astel K (1936) Hochschule und Wissenschaft. Nationalsozialistische Monatshefte 81: 1118–1121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beyler R (1996) Targeting the organism: The scientific and cultural context of Pascual Jordan’s quantum biology, 1932–1947. Isis 87: 248–273.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark AH (1930) The New Evolution: Zoogenesis. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Clark AH (1937) Eogenesis: The origin of animal forms. Acta Biotheoretica 3: 181–194.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dubbeldam JL (2007) An annotated bibliography of C. J. van der Klaauw with notes on the impact of his work. Acta Biotheoretica 55: 1–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gould SJ (2002) The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. Cambridge, MA: Belknap/Harvard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrington A (1996) Reenchanted Science: Holism in German Culture from Wilhelm II to Hitler. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harwood J (1993) Styles of Scientific Thought: The German Genetics Community 1900–1933. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffmann D (2003) Pascual Jordan im dritten Reich—Schlaglichter. Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Preprint 248.

  • Hopwood N (1997) Biology between university and proletariat: The making of a red professor. History of Science 35: 367–424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hossfeld U (2002) “Konstruktion durch Umkonstruktion”—Hans Bökers vergleichende biologische Anatomie der Wirbeltiere. Verhandlungen zur Geschichte und Theorie der Biologie 9: 149–169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hossfeld U (2004a) Rassenkunde und Rassenhygiene im “Mustergau,” 1930–1945. Blätter zur Landeskunde 41. Erfurt, Germany: Thringer Landeszentrale für politische Bildung.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hossfeld U (2004b) Rassenphilosophie und Kulturbiologie im eugenischen Diskurs: Der Jenaer Rassenphilosoph Lothar Stengel von Rutkowski. In: Homo Perfectus? Behinderung und menschliche Existenz (Kodalle KM, ed), 77–92. Würzburg, Germany: Königshausen und Neumann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hossfeld U, Olsson L (2003) The history of comparative anatomy in Jena—an overview. Theory in Biosciences 122: 109–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kater M (1989) Doctors Under Hitler. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kull K, ed (2001) Jakob von Uexküll: A Paradigm for Biology and Semiotics. Semiotica 134.

  • Laubichler MD (2001) Mit oder ohne Darwin? Die Bedeutung der Darwinschen Selektionstheorie in der Konzeption der Theoretischen Biologie von 1900 bis zum Zweiten Weltkrieg. In: Darwinismus und/als Ideologie (Hossfeld U, Brömer R, eds), 229–262. Berlin: VWB.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laubichler MD (2007a) Does history recapitulate itself? Epistemological reflections on the origins of evolutionary developmental biology. In: From Embryology to Evo-Devo: A History of Developmental Evolution (Laubichler MD, Maienschein J, eds), 13–33. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laubichler MD (2007b) Evolutionary developmental biology. In: The Cambridge Companion to the Philosophy of Biology (Hull DL, Ruse M, eds), 342–360. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Laubichler MD, Rheinberger HJ (2006) August Weismann and theoretical biology. Biological Theory 1: 195–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence C, Weisz G (1998) Greater than the Parts: Holism in Biomedicine, 1920–1950. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr E (1982) The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance. Cambridge, MA: Belknap/Harvard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer A (1926) Logik der Morphologie im Rahmen einer Logik der gesamten Biologie. Berlin: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer A (1934) Ideen und Ideale der biologischen Erkenntnis: Beiträge zur Theorie und Geschichte der biologischen Ideologien. Bios 1. Leipzig, Germany: J.A.Barth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer A, Brauer L, Mendelssohn Bartholdy A (1930) Forschungsinstitute: Ihre Geschichte, Organisation und Ziele. 2 vols. Hamburg, Germany: Hartung.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer A, Kötschau K (1936) Theoretische Grundlagen zum Aufbau einer biologischen Medizin. Dresden, Germany: Steinkopff.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer A, van der Klaauw CJ (1935) Ökologische Studien und Kritiken. I. Die Bedeutung der Teleologie Kants für die Logik der Ö kologie. Sudhoffs Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften 27: 516–588.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer-Abich A (1941) Konstruktion und Umkonstruktion: ein Nachruf auf Hans Böker; ergänzt durch neue Beiträge zur Theorie der Umkonstruktion und der Frage ihrer Vererbbarkeit. Jena, Germany: Gustav Fischer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer-Abich A (1943) Beiträge zur Theorie der Evolution der Organismen. I. Das typologische Grundgesetz und seine Folgerungen für Phylogenie und Entwicklungsphysiologie. Acta Biotheoretica 7: 1–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer-Abich A (1948) Naturphilosophie auf neuen Wegen. Stuttgart, Germany: Hippokrates-Verlag Marquardt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer-Abich A (1949) Biologie der Goethezeit. Stuttgart, Germany: Hippokrates-Verlag Marquardt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer-Abich A (1950) Beiträge zur Theorie der Evolution der Organismen. II. Typensynthese durch Holobiose. Bibliotheca Biotheoretica 5. Leiden, the Netherlands: E. J. Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer-Abich A (1963) Geistesgeschichtliche Grundlagen der Biologie. Stuttgart, Germany: Gustav Fischer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer-Abich A (1964) The Historico-Philosophical Background of the Modern Evolution-Biology. Bibliotheca Biotheoretica 10. Leiden, the Netherlands: E. J. Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer-Abich A (1967) Alexander von Humboldt in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten. Reinbek, Germany: Rowohlt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer-Abich A (1969) Atlantische Existenz. In: Wege zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Vol. 1 (Hammer F, Sticker B, Klemm F eds), 39–73. Wiesbaden, Germany: F. Steiner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer-Abich A (1970) Geleitwort. In: Geschichte der Biologischen Theorien in der Neuzeit, 2nd ed. Reprint, Vol. 1 (Rádl E, ed.), v–viii. Hildesheim, Germany: Georg Olms.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mildenberger F (2007) Umwelt als Vision: Leben und Werk Jakob von Uexkülls (1864–1944). Stuttgart, Germany: Gustav Fischer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Minot CS (1913) Modern Problems of Biology: Lectures Delivered at the University of Jena, December 1912. Philadelphia: P. Blaskiston’s Son.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mitscherlich A, Mielke F (1949) Doctors of Infamy: The Story of the Nazi Medical Crimes. New York: Henry Schuman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moynahan GB (1999) Ernst Cassirer, theoretical biology, and the clever Hans problem. Science in Context 12: 549–574.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petersen, H (1937) Die Eigenwelt des Menschen. Bios 8. Leipzig, Germany: J. A. Barth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Proctor R (1988) Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rádl E (1930) The History of Biological Theories (Hatfield EJ, trans). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reich WT (2001) The care-based ethic of Nazi medicine and the moral importance of what we care about. American Journal of Bioethics 1: 64–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reid RG (2007) Biological Emergences: Evolution by Natural Experiment. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reif WE, Junker T, Hossfeld U (2000) The synthetic theory of evolution: General problems and the German contribution to the synthesis. Theory in Biosciences 119: 41–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reydon TAC, Dullemeijer P, Hemerik L (2005) The history of Acta Biotheoretica and the nature of theoretical biology. In: Current Themes in Theoretical Biology: A Dutch Perspective (Reydon TAC, Hemerik L, eds), 1–8. Dordrecht: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg A (1936) Weltanschauung und Wissenschaft. Nationalsozialistische Monatshefte 81: 1066–1076.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schaxel J (1922) Grundzüge der Theorienbildung in der Biologie, 2nd ed. Jena, Germany: Gustav Fischer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schaxel J (1942) Kritische Übersicht der Theorien der ontogenetischen Determination. Bibliotheca Biotheoretica 1(3). Leiden, the Netherlands: E. J. Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schirrmacher A (2007) Physik und politik in der frühen Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Max Born, Werner Heisenberg und Pascual Jordan als politische Grenzgänger. Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 30: 13–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trienes R (1988) The influence of German idealistic morphology on the development of C. J. van der Klaauw’s epistemology. Acta Biotheoretica 37: 91–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uexküll J (1926) Theoretical Biology (Mackinnon DL, trans). New York: Harcourt, Brace.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Bertalanffy L (1928) Kritische Theorie der Formbildung. Abhandlungen zur theoretischen Biologie 27. Berlin: Borntraeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weyl R (1941) Märchen über das Deutsch-Dominikanische Tropenforschungsinstitut. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft 93: 250–251.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of World Languages and Cultures and Program in History of Technology and Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA

    Kevin S. Amidon

Authors
  1. Kevin S. Amidon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kevin S. Amidon.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Amidon, K.S. Adolf Meyer-Abich, Holism, and the Negotiation of Theoretical Biology. Biol Theory 3, 357–370 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1162/biot.2008.3.4.357

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/biot.2008.3.4.357

Keywords

Search

Navigation