02552cam a22003373u 450000100060000000300070000600500170001300600020003000700050003200800410003701000130007804000110009104100170010205000070011910000400012624500320016626400510019830000470024933600260029633700260032233800360034850000310038450501420041550800260055752014020058353400810198565300120206685600740207885600430215299900190219578368UtSlPG20260610134822.0mcr n260607r20261930utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d  a31006978  aUtSlPG 7aen2iso639-1 4aQH1 aHogben, Lancelot Thomas,d1895-197514aThe nature of living matter 1aSalt Lake City, UT :bProject Gutenberg,c2026  a1 online resource :bmultiple file formats  atextbtxt2rdacontent  acomputerbc2rdamedia  aonline resourcebcr2rdacarrier  aRelease date is 2026-04-060 aVitalism and mechanism -- Darwinism and the atomistic interpretation of inheritance -- Holism and the publicist standpoint in philosophy.  aSean (@parchmentglow)  a"The nature of living matter" by Lancelot Thomas Hogben is a collection of scientific essays on biology and philosophy written in the early 20th century. The work probes what “life” means in scientific terms, weighing mechanistic against vitalistic views, and argues that biology’s methods align with those of physics, treating mind as behaviour and keeping science ethically neutral.

The opening of the work frames the essays as an outgrowth of a public debate on the nature of life, sets out a program to critique prominent contemporary views, and emphasizes method over metaphysical claims. It introduces the tension between science and common sense, urges bringing modern biology into philosophy, distinguishes public (communicable) knowledge from private experience, and defines “life” as the properties of living things rather than a metaphysical essence. The first essay advances the “mechanization of consciousness,” replacing talk of mind with behaviour and drawing on Pavlov’s conditioned reflexes to analyze learning, attention, and sensation without introspection, thereby challenging vitalism and inherited dualisms. The next essay begins an “atomistic” account of heredity, using Mendel’s findings and their later development to show how genetics, like chemistry, builds predictive laws while discarding teleology. (This is an automatically generated summary.)  pOriginally published:cLondon: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1930  aBiology4 uhttps://archive.org/details/natureoflivingma0000lanc/page/n7/mode/2up40uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78368  c119088d119088