Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-v5vhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-17T11:23:32.870Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On Biological Analogs of Newtonian Paradigms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Thomas S. Hall
Thomas S. Hall*
Affiliation:
Washington University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To what extent is the scientist's endeavor qua scientist influenced by his philosophic image of himself? A preliminary and partial answer to this question is suggested by a study of eight physiological thinkers of the second half of the eighteenth century, a period during which biology was much influenced by the scientific and philosophical ideas of Isaac Newton. At this time, physiologists invoked certain “principles,” “properties,” and “powers” which were deemed useful as explanatory devices, even though they could not themselves be explained. The use of these devices in physiology was often defended in terms of their supposed similarity to devices used in mathematics and Newtonian physics. The results of this practice are considered critically, partly in the light of current studies of scientific explanation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , March 1968 , pp. 6 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1968

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

The author is grateful to Richard J. Durling, National Library of Medicine, for help in the interpretation of a number of points in Renaissance and Galenic physiology.

Work on this essay has been supported in part by National Science Foundation Grants GS-143 and GS-462.

References

[1] Barthez, P.-J., [Oratio academica] De principio vitali hominis, Montpellier, 1773.Google Scholar
[2] Barthez, P.-J., Nouveaux éléments de la science de l'homme, Montpellier, 1778.Google Scholar
[3] Ibid., 2nd ed., Montpellier, 1806.Google Scholar
[4] Ibid., 3rd ed., Paris, 1858.Google Scholar
[5] Barthez, P.-J., Nouvelle méchanique des mouvements de l'homme et des animaux, Carcassonne, 1798.Google Scholar
[6] Barthez, P.-J., Nova doctrina de functionibus naturae humanae, Montpellier, 1774.Google Scholar
[7] Bastholm, E., History of Muscle Physiology, Copenhagen, 1950.Google Scholar
[8] Berg, A., “Die Lehre von der Faser als Form- und Functions-Element der Organismus,” Virchows Arch. f. path. Anal. u. Phys., Berlin, 1942, pp. 333–460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[9] Bernard, C., Leçons sur les propriétés des tissus vivants, Paris, 1866.Google Scholar
[10] Bichat, F. X., Anatomie générale appliquée à la physiologie et à la médecine, Paris, 1801; tr. Hayward, G., General Anatomy Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Boston, 1822.Google Scholar
[11] Bichat, F. X., Recherches physiologiques sur la vie et la mort, Paris, 1800.Google Scholar
[12] Blumenbach, J. F., Institutiones physiologicae [first publ., Göttingen, 1786], tr. [of 3rd Latin ed.] J. Elliotson, The Institutions of Physiology, 2nd ed., London, Philadelphia, 1817.Google Scholar
[13] Blumenbach, J. F., Über den Bildungstrieb [first publ., Göttingen, 1781], ed. alt., Göttingen, 1789.Google Scholar
[14] de Bordeu, Théophile, “Recherches sur les maladies chroniques, etc.” [first publ., Paris, 1775], Oeuvres.Google Scholar
[15] de Bordeu, Théophile, “Recherches sur le tissu muqueux, ou l'organe cellulaire” [first publ., Paris, 1767], Oeuvres complètes de Bordeu, Paris, 1818.Google Scholar
[16] de Bordeu, Théophile, “Recherches sur quelques points d'histoire de la médecine, etc.” [first publ., anon., Liege, 1764], Oeuvres.Google Scholar
[17] Brown, J., Elementa medicinae [first publ., Edinburgh, 1780], ed. alt. [extensively revised] Edinburgh, 1784, tr. by the author, The Elements of Medicine, etc., London, 1788.Google Scholar
[18] The same, Philadelphia, 1795.Google Scholar
[19] The Works of J. B., London, 1804.Google Scholar
[20] Bunge, Mario, “Phenomenological Theories [Ch. 16],” The Critical Approach to Science and Philosophy, London, 1964.Google Scholar
[21] Cullen, W., Institutions of Medicine [first publ., Edinburgh, 1772], 2nd ed., Edinburgh, 1785.Google Scholar
[22] Daremberg, C., Histoires des sciences médicales, Paris, 1870.Google Scholar
[23] Dastre, A., La vie et la mort, Paris, 1903.Google Scholar
[24] DuBois-Reymond, E., Untersuchungen über Thierische Elektricität, Berlin, 1848–1849.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[25] Dumas, C.-L., Principes de physiologie ou Introduction à la science expérimentale, philosophique et médicale de l'homme vivant, Paris, 1800.Google Scholar
[26] Fernel, J., De abditis causis rerum, etc. [first publ., Paris, 1548], Paris, 1560.Google Scholar
[27] Fernel, J., De naturali parte medicinae, Paris, 1542.Google Scholar
[28] Galen, , De optima corporis nostri constitutione, vol. 4 (ed. Kuhn), pp. 737–749.Google Scholar
[29] Galen, , De facultatibus naturalibus, all transl. from Brock ed.Google Scholar
[30] Galen, , De locis affectis, vol. 8 (ed. Kuhn), pp. 1–452.Google Scholar
[31] Galen, , De methodo medendi, vol. 10 (ed. Kuhn), pp. 1–1021.Google Scholar
[32] Galen, , Quod animi mores corporis temperamentum sequantur, vol. 4 (ed. Kuhn), pp. 767–822.Google Scholar
[33] Galen, , De symptomatum differentiis, vol. 7 (ed. Kuhn), pp. 42–84.Google Scholar
[34] Gaub[ius], H., Institutiones pathologiae medicinalis, Leiden, 1758, tr. C. Erskine, The Institutions of Medicinal Pathology, Edinburgh, 1778.Google Scholar
[35] Gaub[ius], H., De regimine mentis, see below, note 57.Google Scholar
[36] Glisson, F., Anatomia hepatis, etc., London, 1654.Google Scholar
[37] Glisson, F., De rachidite, sive morbo puerili tractatus, etc. [first publ., London, 1650], 2nd ed., London, 1660.Google Scholar
[38] Glisson, F., Tractatus de natura substantiae energetica seu de vita naturae ejusque tribus primis facultatibus, vegetativa appetitiva motiva naturalibus., London, 1672.Google Scholar
[39] Glisson, F., Tractatus de ventriculo et intestinis, Amsterdam, 1677.Google Scholar
[40] Goodman, N., Fact, Fiction and Forecast [first publ., New York, 1955], 2nd ed., Indianapolis, 1965.Google Scholar
[41] von Haller, A., “De partibus corporis humani sensibilibus et irritabilibus,” Commentarii Societatis Regiae Scientiarum Göttingensis, vol. 2, Göttingen, 1753, pp. 114–158; read April 22, 1752; anon. tr. [of a Fr. tr. by M. Tissot, Lausanne, 1764], A Dissertation on the Sensible and Irritable Parts of Animals, London, 1755, republ. with an intr. by O. Temkin, Baltimore, 1936. Our refs. to Eng. ed., 1755.Google Scholar
[42] von Haller, A., Elementa physiologiae corporis humani, vols. 1 to 8, Lausanne 1757 to 1766.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[43] Hermann, G., “Irritabilité,” La Grande Encyclopédie, vol. 20, p. 973.Google Scholar
[44] Kuhn, T., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago, 1962.Google Scholar
[45] Lawrence, W., Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man, London, 1919.Google Scholar
[46] Lovejoy, A. O., “The meaning of vitalism,” Science, n.s. 33, Lancaster, 1911, pp. 610–614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[47] Magendie, F., Phénomènes physiques de la vie, Paris, 1842.Google Scholar
[48] Magendie, F., Précis élémentaire de physiologie, Paris, 1816.Google Scholar
[49] Ibid., Paris, 1833.Google Scholar
[50] Medicus, C. F., Von der Lebenskraft, eine Vorlesung … den 5 November, 1744, Mannheim, 1745 (?).Google Scholar
[51] Newton, I., Opticks: or, a Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Influxions, and Colours of Light, Etc. [first ed., London, 1704], 4th ed., London, 1730, republ., New York, 1952.Google Scholar
[52] Newton, I., Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica [first publ., London, 1687], tr. Motte, Sir I. N.'s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and his System of the World, London, 1729, republished (ed. F. Cajori), Berkeley, 1934.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[53] Pagel, W., Paracelsus, an Introduction to Philsophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance, New York, 1958.Google Scholar
[54] Pagel, W., “van Helmont's ideas on gastric digestion and the gastric acid,” Bull. Hist. Med., vol. 30, Baltimore, 1956, pp. 524–536.Google ScholarPubMed
[55] Paracelsus, , “Bruchstücke des Buches von den fünf Entien, genannt Volumen medicinae paramirum de medica industria,” ca. 1520, Sämtliche Werke, vol. 1, Munich, Berlin, 1929.Google Scholar
[56] Paracelsus, , Volumen paramirum, see above n. 55, tr. Leidecker, Bull. Hist. Med. Suppl., 1949.Google Scholar
[57] Ramsey, F. P., The Foundations of Mathematics, Paterson, New Jersey, 1960.Google Scholar
[58] Rather, L. J., Mind and Body in Eighteenth Century Medicine, London, 1965. Contains annotated translations of Gaub's two lectures De regimine mentis (1747, 1763).Google Scholar
[59] Sauvages de la Croix, B., Nosologia methodica [first publ., Amsterdam, 1763], tr. M. Nicolas, Nosologie méthodique dans laquelle les maladies sont rangées par classe suivant le système de Sydenham, et l'ordre des botanistes, Paris, 1770.Google Scholar
[60] Sauvages de la Croix, B., “Sur la méthode nosologique,” read Nov. 2, 1731, [Histoire et] Mémoires de la Société Royale des Sciences Établie à Montpellier, vol. 2, Montpellier, 1768.Google Scholar
[61] Scheffler, J., The Anatomy of Inquiry, New York, 1963.Google Scholar
[62] Synge, J. L., Science: Sense and Nonsense, London, 1951.Google Scholar
[63] Verworn, M., Irritability A Physiological Analysis of the General Effect of Stimuli on Living Substance, Silliman Memorial Lectures, New Haven, 1913.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[64] Virchow, R., Die Cellular-pathologie in ihrer Begründung auf physiologische und pathologische Gewebelehre, etc. (Berlin, 1858, 1859); tr. of the 2nd ed., F. Chance, Cellular Pathology, etc., London, 1860, New York, 1860 (?).Google Scholar
[65] Voltaire, , “Élémens de la philosophie de Neuton, mis à la portée de tout le monde” [first publ., Amsterdam, 1738], Oeuvres Complètes de Voltaire, etc., Paris, 1879.Google Scholar