1st Edition

Revival: The History of Biology (1929) A Survey

By Erik Nordenskiold Copyright 1929
    682 Pages
    by Routledge

    664 Pages
    by Routledge

    This work, which is here present in the English language, is based on a course of lectures given at the University of Helsingfors, Finland, during the academic year 1916-17. It is the author's intention to present a picture of the development of biological science throughout the ages, viewed in conjunction with the general cultural development of mankind. Regarded thus as a link in the general history of culture, the problems of biology will, it is hoped, prove of interest not only to young university students, for whom this book is primarily intended, but also to a still wider public. With regard to moderen times, for obvious reasons it has only been possible in such a brief history as this to give a very summary account of recent developments.

    Part One Biology in Classical Antiquity, The Middle Ages, and The Renaissance 1. The development of biology amongst the primitive peoples and the civilized nations of the East 2.The earliest Greek natural Philosophy 3.The earlier phase of Greek medical science and its significance for the development of biology 4.The end of natural philosophical speculation. The predecessors of Aristotle 5.Aristotle 6. Natural-philosophical systems after Aristotle 7. Specialized biological research after Aristotle 8. The decline of science in late antiquity 9.Biological science among the Arabians 10.Biology during the Christian Middle Ages. The History of Biology During The Renaissance. 11. The end of medieval science 12. New cosmic ideas and new scientific method 13. Descriptive biological research during the Renaissance: 1.Zoography 2.Anatomy 14. The discovery of the circulation of the blood: 1.Harvey's predecessors 2.Harvey Part Two Biology in The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 1.The origin of the modern idea of nature in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 2. The mechanical nature-systems 3.Mystical speculation upon natural science 4.Biological research in the seventeenth century: 1. Harvey's successes 2.Attempts at a mechanical explanation of life-phenomena 3.Microscopics and microtechnology 5.Biological speculations and controversial questions at the beginning of the eighteenth century 6.The development of systematic classification before Linneus 7. Linneus and his pupils 8. Buffon 9. Invertebrate research in the eighteenth century 10. Experimental and speculative biology in the eighteenth century 11. Descriptive and comparative anatomy in the eighteenth century 12. The first beginnings of modern chemistry and its influence upon the development of biology 13. Critical philosophy and Romantic conception of nature: 1. Kant and his immediate successors 2. Goether 14. Natural philosophy biology: 1. Germany and Scandinavia 2. England and France Part Three Moderen Biology. Biology during the First Half of The Nineteenth Century 1. From natural philosophy to modern biology: 1.The predecessors of comparative anatomy 2. Humboldt 3. Lamarck 2. Cuvier 3.Bichat and his tissue theory 4.Cuvier's younger contemporaries 5. The progress of embryology 6.The development of experimental research and its application to comparative biology 7.Microscopy and cytology 8. The continued development of biology until the advent of Darwinism: 1. Experimental research work 2. Morphology and classification  3. Microbiology 4. Botany. 9. Positivist and materialist natural philosophy From Darwin to Our Own Day 10. The preconditions of Darwinism: 1. Modern geology 2. The ideal preconditions of Darwinism 11. Darwin 12. For and against Darwin 13. The doctrine of descent based on morphological grounds. Gegenbaur and his school 14. Haeckel and monism 15. Morphological specialized research under the influence of Darwinism: 1. Anatomy and embryology 2. Crytology 3. Microbiology 4. Vegetable morphology 5. Geographical biology 16. Neo-Darwinism and neo-Lamarckism 17. Experimental biology: 1. Experimental morphology 2. Experimental heredity-research 3. Biochemistry 4. Animal psychology 18. Modern theoretical speculations: 1. Mechanism and vitalism 2. The idea of species and some problems in connexion therewith. Sources and Literature. Sources. Literature. Index of Names

    Biography

    Erik Nordenskiold