The limits of the mathematization of the living and the idea of formal morphology of the living world following Husserlian phenomenology

Though it did not yet exist as a discrete field of scientific inquiry, biology was at the heart of many of the most important debates in seventeenth-century philosophy. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the work of G. W. Leibniz. This book offers the first in-depth examination of Leibniz's deep and complex engagement with the empirical life sciences of his day, in areas as diverse as medicine, physiology, taxonomy, generation theory, and paleontology. The book shows how these wide-ranging pursuits were not only central to Leibniz's philosophical interests, but often provided the insights that led to some of his best-known philosophical doctrines. Presenting the clearest picture yet of the scope of Leibniz's theoretical interest in the life sciences, the book takes seriously the philosopher's own repeated claims that the world must be understood in fundamentally biological terms. Here it reveals a thinker who was immersed in the sciences of life, and looked to the living world for answers to vexing metaphysical problems. The book casts Leibniz's philosophy in an entirely new light, demonstrating how it radically departed from the prevailing models of mechanical philosophy and had an enduring influence on the history and development of the life sciences. Along the way, the book provides a fascinating glimpse into early modern debates about the nature and origins of organic life, and into how philosophers such as Leibniz engaged with the scientific dilemmas of their era.

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Viral Host Range database, an online tool for recording, analyzing and disseminating virus-host interactions

Bioinformatics ◽

10.1093/bioinformatics/btab070 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Quentin Lamy-Besnier ◽

Bryan Brancotte ◽

Hervé Ménager ◽

Laurent Debarbieux

Keyword(s):

Host Range ◽

Source Code ◽

Range Data ◽

Web Based ◽

Online Tool ◽

Experimental Host ◽

Living World ◽

Host Interactions ◽

Experimental Host Range ◽

Viral Host Range

Abstract Motivation Viruses are ubiquitous in the living world, and their ability to infect more than one host defines their host range. However, information about which virus infects which host, and about which host is infected by which virus, is not readily available. Results We developed a web-based tool called the Viral Host Range database to record, analyze and disseminate experimental host range data for viruses infecting archaea, bacteria and eukaryotes. Availability The ViralHostRangeDB application is available from https://viralhostrangedb.pasteur.cloud. Its source code is freely available from the Gitlab hub of Institut Pasteur (https://gitlab.pasteur.fr/hub/viralhostrangedb).

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This Living World

Nature ◽

10.1038/147761c0 ◽

1941 ◽

Vol 147 (3738) ◽

pp. 761-761

Keyword(s):

Living World

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Jacob Klapwijk, Purpose in the living world? Cambridge 2008: Cambridge University Press. 322 pages. ISBN 978-0521729437

Philosophia Reformata ◽

10.1163/22116117-90000484 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 75 (1) ◽

pp. 82-85

Author(s):

Roy Clouser

Keyword(s):

Intelligent Design ◽

Alvin Plantinga ◽

Cambridge University ◽

Living World ◽

Knowledge Of God

Book Reviews Jacob Klapwijk, Purpose in the living world? (R. Clouser) Bradley Monton, Seeking God in Science: An Atheist Defends Intelligent Design (J. de Ridder) Alvin Plantinga and Michael Tooley, Knowledge of God (J. de Ridder) Nicholas Wolterstorff, Justice: Rights and Wrongs (A. Soeteman)

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