Abstract
If all men were exterminated, this would not affect the laws of inanimate nature. But the production of machines would stop, and not until men arose again could machines be formed once more. Some animals can produce tools, but only men can construct machines; machines are human artifacts, made of inanimate material.
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References
See P. Weiss, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S. 42, 819 (1956).
The ‘field’ concept was first used by Spemann (1921) in describing the organizer; Paul Weiss (1923) introduced it for the study of regeneration and extended it (1926) to include ontogeny. See P. Weiss, Principles of Development (Holt, New York, 1939), p. 290.
See, for example, C. H. Waddington, The Strategy of the Genes (Allen & Unwin, London, 1957), particularly the graphic explanation of ‘genetic assimilation’ on page 167.
See, for example, M. Polanyi, Amer. Psychologist 23 (Jan. 1968) or —, The Tacit Dimension (Doubleday, New York, 1967).
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© 1976 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
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Polanyi, M. (1976). Life’s Irreducible Structure. In: Topics in the Philosophy of Biology. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 27. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1829-6_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1829-6_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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