It was only around 1800 that heredity began to enter debates among physicians, breeders, and naturalists. Soon thereafter it evolved into one of the most fundamental concepts of biology. Here Staffan Muller-Wille and Hans-Jorg Rheinberger offer a succinct cultural history of the scientific concept of heredity. They outline the dramatic changes the idea has undergone since the early modern period and describe the political and technological developments that brought about these changes. Muller-Wille and Rheinberger begin with an account of premodern theories of generation, showing that...
It was only around 1800 that heredity began to enter debates among physicians, breeders, and naturalists. Soon thereafter it evolved into one of th...
Der Zwei-Kulturen-These zufolge haben sich die Naturwissenschaften und die Geisteswissenschaften im 20. Jahrhundert in einander nicht mehr verstehende Bereiche des Wissens auseinander gelebt. Im vorliegenden Text wird diese Schwarz-Weiss-Zeichnung mehrfach aufgebrochen. Zunachst wird die Dynamik der Disziplinen am Beispiel der Geschichte der Biologie vorgestellt. Disziplinen sind historisch sich dramatisch verandernde Gebilde. Sodann werden - unter anderem anhand von Texten Cassirers, Mannheims, Bachelards und Bourdieus - Konzepte von Natur und Kultur einerseits sowie von Wissensformationen...
Der Zwei-Kulturen-These zufolge haben sich die Naturwissenschaften und die Geisteswissenschaften im 20. Jahrhundert in einander nicht mehr verstehende...
Few concepts played a more important role in twentieth-century life sciences than that of the gene. Yet at this moment, the field of genetics is undergoing radical conceptual transformation, and some scientists are questioning the very usefulness of the concept of the gene, arguing instead for more systemic perspectives. The time could not be better, therefore, for Hans-Jorg Rheinberger and Staffan Muller-Wille's magisterial history of the concept of the gene. Though the gene has long been the central organizing theme of biology, both conceptually and as an object of study, Rheinberger...
Few concepts played a more important role in twentieth-century life sciences than that of the gene. Yet at this moment, the field of genetics is under...
