The philosophy of biology

_Argument._--The conscious organism is one that acts. Its consciousness of an external world is not simply the result of the stimuli made by that world on its organs of sense, f...

_Argument._--If the organism is a physico-chemical mechanism its activities must conform to the two principles of energetics: the law of conservation of energy and matter, and t...

_Argument._--If the organism is investigated by the methods of physical and chemical science, nothing but physico-chemical activities can be discovered. This is necessarily the...

_Argument._--The notion of the organism as a physico-chemical mechanism is a deduction from the methods of physiology, and not from its results. The notion of vitalism is a natu...

_Argument._--The concept of the organic individual is one which is arbitrary, and is convenient only for purposes of description. Life on the earth is integrally one. Personalit...

_Argument._--A reasoned classification of organisms suggests that a process of evolution has taken place. It suggests logical relation- ships between organisms, while the result...

_Argument._--If we assume the existence of an evolutionary process, the results of morphology, embryology, and palæontology ought to enable us to trace the directions followed d...

_Argument._--A strictly mechanistic hypothesis of evolution compels us to regard the organic world, and the inorganic environment with which it interacts, as a physico-chemical...

Let us suppose that we are walking along a street in a busy town; that we are familiar with it, and all the things that are usually to be seen in it, so that our attention is no...

We propose now to consider the organism purely as a physico-chemical mechanism, but before doing so it may be useful to summarise the results of the discussions of the last chap...

The rather lengthy discussion of the last chapter was necessary in order to show just how far the principles of energetics established by the physicists applied to the organism....

Two main conclusions emerge from the discussions of the last three chapters: (1) that physiology encourages no notions as to a “vital principle” or force, or form of energy pecu...

What is an individual organism? A Protozoan, such as an _Amœba_ or a _Paramœcium_, is a single cell: it is an aggregate of physical and chemical parts, nucleus, cytoplasm, etc.,...

The species is therefore a group of organisms all of which exhibit the same morphological characters. This sameness is not absolute, for the individuals composing the species ma...

Apart from experimental investigation, the results of comparative anatomy, even if they are amplified by those of comparative embryology, and even if they include fossil as well...

It is convenient that we should express the results of biological investigation in schemes of classification, for only in this way can we reduce the apparent chaos of naturally...