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001 78368
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010 _a31006978
040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _aen
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aQH
100 1 _aHogben, Lancelot Thomas,
_d1895-1975
245 1 4 _aThe nature of living matter
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2026
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
500 _aRelease date is 2026-04-06
505 0 _aVitalism and mechanism -- Darwinism and the atomistic interpretation of inheritance -- Holism and the publicist standpoint in philosophy.
508 _aSean (@parchmentglow)
520 _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.)
534 _pOriginally published:
_cLondon: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1930
653 _aBiology
856 4 _uhttps://archive.org/details/natureoflivingma0000lanc/page/n7/mode/2up
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78368
999 _c119088
_d119088