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Biological Phenomena

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Explanation in the Sciences

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science ((BSPS,volume 128))

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Abstract

Still, even taking into account this very important qualification, the image of science at which we have arrived cannot help astonishing us. It seems to shock us most of all, of course, when we consider the biological sciences. Would science really ever presume to use these same methods of reduction and spatial assimilation to approach, to attack those infinitely particularized beings, at once so changeable and so persistent, so distinct from what surrounds them, in short all that prodigious whole we call life?

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Notes

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  19. Furthermore, Bäyer believes that it is in fact by means of this reaction that synthesis is carried out in the organism. See Loeb, La Dynamique 208 [Dynamics 114].

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  39. Drisch explicitly posits it as such, declaring this concept “autonomous” and “irreducible” (The Science and Philosophy of the Organism, Aberdeen: printed for the University, 1908, 1:144, 288). See also 2:249, where Driesch asserts that no chemical substance is possible as a basis for entelechy.

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Authors
  1. Émile Meyerson
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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Meyerson, É. (1991). Biological Phenomena. In: Explanation in the Sciences. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 128. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3414-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3414-9_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-5511-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-3414-9

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