Aristotle's Teleology and Uexküll's Theory of Living Nature

1948 ◽  
Vol 42 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 44-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helene Weiss
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Full Detail ◽  
Modern Theory ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Living Nature ◽  
Easy Solution

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to a similarity between an ancient and a modern theory of living nature. There is no need to present the Aristotelian doctrine in full detail. I must rather apologize for repeating much that is well known. My endeavour is to offer it for comparison, and, incidentally, to clear it from misrepresentation. Uexküll's theory, on the other hand, is little known, and what is given here is an insufficient outline of it. I do not maintain that either doctrine is right. I am fully aware that the problem of the essence of living nature by no means admits of an éasy solution. In offering for consideration the comparison contained in this paper I would go no farther than owning my belief that the two authors here discussed, both thinkers who combine an intensely philosophical outlook with a wide biological experience, are worth the attention not only of the historian of science and philosophy, but also of the student of philosophical biology.

scholarly journals Indecisão plena de promessas: imagens da vida e da infância na filosofia de Henri Bergson

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (71) ◽  
pp. 565-580
Author(s):  
Magda Costa Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Dynamic Contact ◽  
The Other ◽  
Henri Bergson ◽  
Key Words Childhood ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
De Se ◽  
Living Nature ◽  
The One ◽  
Élan Vital

Indecisão plena de promessas: imagens da vida e da infância na filosofia de Henri Bergson Resumo: Numa passagem da obra Évolution Créatrice, Bergson recupera a imagem da criança para afirmar que a natureza viva opera através de tendências divergentes. Apesar de não ter desenvolvido um pensamento de pendor educacional, encontram-se na obra bergsoniana referências que, por um lado, recuperam a dimensão criativa e criadora da infância e, por outro, acentuam a forma infantil dos movimentos do élan vital. Estas referências fazem parte da imagética do autor, mostrando como o seu pensamento sugestiona leituras ímpares. O convite para cruzar a imagem da vida como infância com a imagem da infância como vida revela-se, assim, sugestivo para repensar o que nos habita como constitutivamente outro: a criança que fomos e a natureza que somos. E será através da imagem – como forma de contacto dinâmico com o real – que poderemos encontrar algumas respostas para a sugestão bergsoniana de se promover nas escolas um conhecimento infantil (enfantin).Palavras-chave: infância; criança; natureza; imagem; Bergson. Indecision charged with promise: Images of life and childhood in Henri Bergson’s philosophy Abstract: In a passage in his Évolution Créatrice, Bergson reclaims the image of the child to argue that living nature works through divergent tendencies. Although Bergson’s work doesn’t focus specifically on education, it does contain references that, on the one hand, reclaim the creative and creating nature of childhood, while on the other hand accentuating the childlike nature of élan vital’s movements (vital impetus). These references are part of Bergson’s repertoire of imagery and demonstrate how his thought evokes uneven readings. The invitation to cross the image of life as childhood with that of childhood as life ultimately evokes a rethinking of what inhabits us as constitutively other: the child we were and the nature we are. And it is through the notion of image – as a form of dynamic contact with reality – that we will find some answers for Bergson’s suggestion that schools promote a childlike knowledge (enfantin).Key-words: childhood; child; nature; image; Bergson.  Indecisión cargada de promesas: Imagénes de la vida y de la infancia en la filosofía de Henri Bergson Resumen: En un pasaje sobre la obra Évolution Créatrice, Bergson recupera la imagen del niño para afirmar que la naturaleza viva opera a través de tendencias divergentes. A pesar de no haber desarrollado un pensamiento de carácter educacional, se encuentran en la obra bergsoniana referencias que, por un lado, recuperan la dimensión creativa y creadora de la infancia y, por otro, acentúan la forma infantil de los movimientos del impulso vital. Estas referencias hacen parte de la imagen del autor, mostrando como su pensamiento sugestiona lecturas impares. O convite para cruzar la imagen de la vida como infancia con la imagen de la infancia como vida se revela, de esta manera, sugestivo para repensar lo que nos habita como constitutivamente otro: el niño que fuimos y la naturaleza que somos. Y será a través de la imagen – como forma de contacto dinámico con lo real – que podremos encontrar algunas respuestas para la sugestión bergsoniana de promoverse en las escuelas un conocimiento infantil (enfantin).Palavras-clave: infancia; niño; naturaleza; imagen; Bergson. Data de registro: 20/08/2020Data de aceite: 30/11/2020

scholarly journals Quick Response Journey // Viaje de respuesta rápida

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-202
Author(s):  
Pia Alejandra Galvez Lindegaard
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Qr Code ◽  
Quick Response ◽  
Portable Electronics ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Green Corridor ◽  
Living Nature ◽  
Digital Symbol

      The Quick Response Journey installation is inspired by the QR code (a matrix to store and encode high volumes of data) that is becoming more and more familiar to all of us due to the increasing use of portable electronics. A QR code contains information with fast readability, it is a digital symbol of our times. Digitalised. Virtualised. Dematerialised. But on the other hand, our adaptation as humans is not as fast as technology is. Nowadays we are devoted to the technology, apparently it is important for us. We have faith in tech. This QR code is materialised to go in and experience a metaphorical journey, an ultra-fast pilgrimage trying to balance our primitive and technological needs. We start the journey entering from the carbon society. While we walk through the green corridor we absorb all the condensed amount of data of living nature. The same QR code is in the centre inside an illuminated box from the bottom full of sprouts, symbols of nature and inspiration to reverse the destruction of the earth going towards a post-carbon society. Resumen      La instalación de Viaje de respuesta rápida está inspirada en el código QR (una matriz para almacenar y codificar gran cantidad de datos), que se está volviendo cada vez más conocido para todos debido a su uso en aumento en sistemas electrónicos portátiles. Un ´código QR contiene información de rápida legibilidad, es un símbolo digital de nuestra época. Digitalizado. Virtualizado. Desmaterializado. Pero por otro lado, nuestra adaptación como humanos no es tan rápida como la tecnología. Hoy en día estamos dedicados a la tecnología, aparentemente es importante para nosotros. Tenemos fe en ella. Este código QR se materializa para ir en un viaje metafórico y para experimentarlo, un peregrinaje ultra rápido que intenta equilibrar nuestras necesidades primitivas y tecnológicas. Empezamos el viaje entrando desde la sociedad de carbono. Mientras caminamos por el pasillo verde absorbemos todas las cantidades de datos condensadas de la naturaleza viva. El mismo código QR está en el centro de una caja iluminada desde abajo, llena de brotes, símbolos de la naturaleza e inspiración para revertir la destrucción de la tierra yendo hacia una sociedad post-carbono.

scholarly journals Experiments and observations on electric conduction

1833 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 350-351
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Modern Theory ◽  
Electric Conduction ◽  
Hollow Cone ◽  
General Law ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Extreme Degree ◽  
A Charge ◽  
To Receive

According to the modern theory of electricity, metallic bodies, far from attracting the electric fluid, as is commonly believed, are of all bodies those which have the least attraction for that fluid, and being the best conductors for it, are entirely passive during its transit through them. In confirmation of these views, the author describes experiments in which the electric spark was found to have penetrated through the side of a glass globe blown to an extreme degree of thinness. An electric jar, from which the air had been partially exhausted, could not be made to receive as high a charge as when the contained air was of the usual density, and when entirely exhausted could not be charged in any sensible degree; when filled with condensed air on the other hand, it retained a higher charge than before. The heated and consequently rarefied air surrounding a red-hot iron rod is found to conduct electricity with great facility. The same property is observed in the flame from a blowpipe, which may be regarded as a hollow cone containing highly rarefied air; as also, in a larger scale, in that of a volcano. Sir H. Davy had concluded from his experiments on voltaic electricity, that the conducting powers of metals are diminished by heat; but Mr. Ritchie infers from several experiments which bear more directly upon the question, that the metals afford no exception to the general law, that in all bodies heat increases the conducting powers; and explains the apparent anomaly in Sir H. Davy’s experiments, by the dissipation of the electricity by the rarefied air surrounding the heated metals, which were used as conductors. He concludes his paper by describing an experiment which appears to establish, in respect to this law, a striking analogy between the electric and magnetic influences.

scholarly journals Dybdeøkologi og kosmisk livserotik - Introduktion til Ludwig Klages’ ”Menneske og jord”

2018 ◽  
pp. 17-26
Author(s):  
Lars Ylander
Keyword(s):  
Deep Ecology ◽  
The Other ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
Dynamical Flow ◽  
Core Value ◽  
Living Nature ◽  
First Time ◽  
Do So

Ludwig Klages’ famous essay from 1913 is here translated into Danish for the first time. According to Klages, the planet-wide destruction of nature is a disastrous outcome of a runaway mad civilisation focused on progress. Famously, he finds the root of the madness to be an intricate entanglement of science, technology, capitalism and Christianity. Ultimately, these are all aspects of what he calls Spirit (Geist) – an alienating and life-disruptive power that tears man away from its original being interwoven with living nature. Its benign adversary, Soul, is characterised by caring for life. This elementary or cosmic love is linked to Soul’s way of recognizing reality through a dynamical flow of sensual pictures. On the other hand, Spirit’s drive to destroy and kill is related to its way of fixating knowledge of the world by means of concepts. Klages diagnoses modern ‘civilisation’ as an era of downfall of the Soul. The devastating events the following summer of 1914 may be seen as a consequence of the bad cultural standing. An anthropological ecology, spirit-dominated and with civilised man’s interest as its core value, is not enough to save nature. Only a deep ecology, where Soul dominates Spirit, can do so, moving the value focus away from man to Earth.

scholarly journals Pozycja człowieka w przyrodzie – osobliwe zwierzę

2011 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 23-50
Author(s):  
Zdzisław Kieliszek
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Problem ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
Living Nature ◽  
The One

The question: who is the man? seems to be the very important philosophical problem. This question focuses many different problems of the philosophy. Recently we have another form of this question: is the man only an animal? The development and results of the biology lead us to the statement – the man is the only one of many elements of the nature, wholly connected with the world. The analysis of the human way of being presents us, that the man is really the part of the nature, but he has the special status in the world. On the one hand he has many features with dead and living nature, especially with the apes. On the other hand the man has the certain attributes and abilities, which have no equivalent in the world of plants and animals. We can say the man belongs to the nature and he steps over it. He is a very peculiar species because he can control his animal nature.

scholarly journals Primitive accumulation and Chinese mirrors

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-42
Author(s):  
Jack Barbalet
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Modern Theory ◽  
Capitalist Class ◽  
Primitive Accumulation ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
Other Hand

A consensus holds that the structure of Capital I is problematic. In particular, the section ‘So-called Primitive Accumulation’ discusses the origins of capitalism but appears at the end of the volume rather than at the beginning. Even more anomalous, the forecast of the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist class is in the penultimate chapter. The final chapter, ‘The Modern Theory of Colonization’, is regarded by commentators as enigmatic, if they refer to it at all. This article, on the other hand, shows that Marx considered the structure of Capital over a number of years and that his discussion of Wakefield’s theory of colonization is part of an account of the continuing centrifugal regeneration of capitalist relations beyond the sites of mature capitalism. The article addresses the failure of commentators from Mehring to Harvey to appreciate the logic of Capital’s chapter structure. The contemporary resonance of Marx’s account of capitalist development at the periphery of the global capitalist system is indicated by considering primitive accumulation in two distinct phases of China’s history.

A study of cometary eruptions through OH radio-lines

1999 ◽  
Vol 173 ◽  
pp. 249-254
Author(s):  
A.M. Silva ◽  
R.D. Miró
Keyword(s):  
Short Duration ◽  
Growth Curves ◽  
The Other ◽  
Initial Mass ◽  
Radio Lines ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Sudden Rise

AbstractWe have developed a model for theH2OandOHevolution in a comet outburst, assuming that together with the gas, a distribution of icy grains is ejected. With an initial mass of icy grains of 108kg released, theH2OandOHproductions are increased up to a factor two, and the growth curves change drastically in the first two days. The model is applied to eruptions detected in theOHradio monitorings and fits well with the slow variations in the flux. On the other hand, several events of short duration appear, consisting of a sudden rise ofOHflux, followed by a sudden decay on the second day. These apparent short bursts are frequently found as precursors of a more durable eruption. We suggest that both of them are part of a unique eruption, and that the sudden decay is due to collisions that de-excite theOHmaser, when it reaches the Cometopause region located at 1.35 × 105kmfrom the nucleus.

Closing the GAP—A 5Å Scanning Microscope

1969 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 6-7
Author(s):  
A. V. Crewe
Keyword(s):  
Normal Form ◽  
The Other ◽  
Resolving Power ◽  
Scanning Microscope ◽  
Conventional Microscope ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Closing The Gap ◽  
Thermal Sources ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Transmission Microscope

We have become accustomed to differentiating between the scanning microscope and the conventional transmission microscope according to the resolving power which the two instruments offer. The conventional microscope is capable of a point resolution of a few angstroms and line resolutions of periodic objects of about 1Å. On the other hand, the scanning microscope, in its normal form, is not ordinarily capable of a point resolution better than 100Å. Upon examining reasons for the 100Å limitation, it becomes clear that this is based more on tradition than reason, and in particular, it is a condition imposed upon the microscope by adherence to thermal sources of electrons.

Life Beyond 1MeV

1980 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 30-33
Author(s):  
K.H. Westmacott
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Past Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Good Case ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The U.S

Life beyond 1MeV – like life after 40 – is not too different unless one takes advantage of past experience and is receptive to new opportunities. At first glance, the returns on performing electron microscopy at voltages greater than 1MeV diminish rather rapidly as the curves which describe the well-known advantages of HVEM often tend towards saturation. However, in a country with a significant HVEM capability, a good case can be made for investing in instruments with a range of maximum accelerating voltages. In this regard, the 1.5MeV KRATOS HVEM being installed in Berkeley will complement the other 650KeV, 1MeV, and 1.2MeV instruments currently operating in the U.S. One other consideration suggests that 1.5MeV is an optimum voltage machine – Its additional advantages may be purchased for not much more than a 1MeV instrument. On the other hand, the 3MeV HVEM's which seem to be operated at 2MeV maximum, are much more expensive.

Can the Academic Self-Concept be Positive and Realistic?

2005 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 129-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reimer Kornmann
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Opposite Effect ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
High Ability ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Other Hand

Summary: My comment is basically restricted to the situation in which less-able students find themselves and refers only to literature in German. From this point of view I am basically able to confirm Marsh's results. It must, however, be said that with less-able pupils the opposite effect can be found: Levels of self-esteem in these pupils are raised, at least temporarily, by separate instruction, academic performance however drops; combined instruction, on the other hand, leads to improved academic performance, while levels of self-esteem drop. Apparently, the positive self-image of less-able pupils who receive separate instruction does not bring about the potential enhancement of academic performance one might expect from high-ability pupils receiving separate instruction. To resolve the dilemma, it is proposed that individual progress in learning be accentuated, and that comparisons with others be dispensed with. This fosters a self-image that can in equal measure be realistic and optimistic.

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