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Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny: A Classic Formula of Organicism

1987; Springer Nature; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-94-009-3917-2_4

2214-7942

Karl J. Fink,

Botanical Research and Chemistry

In the opening sentence of his essay on the "Philosophy of Organic Life" (1925), Moritz Schlick wrote that "the ultimate and most basic question of organic life concerns the relation of living to nonliving matter."1 He went on to list important changes in the development of matter theory, he gave the arguments for and against "vitalism" and "mechanism," and he mentioned significant events such as Friedrich Wöhler's (1800–1882) laboratory production of urea in 1828, an event which refuted the view that the synthesis of organic compounds required a special "vital force." The questions raised in Schlick's essay are representative of the issues found in studies on organic life, issues about the relationship of mind and body, about organic teleology, about vitalism and non-physical processes of life. It is such issues which lie at the heart of the present discussion of organicism in science and literature.