Styles of reasoning in the British life sciences : shared assumptions, 1820-1858 / by James Elwick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Elwick, James, 1973- author.

Series:

Science and culture in the nineteenth century ; no. 1.

Science and culture in the nineteenth century ; no. 1

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Life sciences--Research--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Life sciences.

Life sciences--Methodology.

Great Britain.

Genre:

History

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 233 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London : Pickering & Chatto, 2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Elwick explores how the concept of 'compound individuality' brought together life scientists working in pre-Darwinian London. Scientists conducting research in comparative anatomy, physiology, cellular microscopy, embryology and the neurosciences repeatedly stated that plants and animals were compounds of smaller independent units. Discussion of a 'bodily economy' was widespread. But by 1860, the most flamboyant discussions of compound individuality had come to an end in Britain. Elwick relates the growth and decline of questions about compound individuality to wider nineteenth-century debates about research standards and causality. He uses specific technical case studies to address overarching themes of reason and scientific method.

Contents:

Cover; Half Title; Title; Copyright; Contents; Acknowledgments; List of Illustrations; Introduction; Styles of Reasoning: Analysis: Synthesis and Palaetiology; Problematics; A London Community of Life Researchers and other Historiographic Notes; The Argument and Structure; Historians' Questions; 1. Analysis Part One; Analysis: Synthesis in France; Philosophic Anatomy in London; Philosophic Radicals and Philosophic Anatomists: Mutually Appreciative Audiences; Analysis: Synthesis, Political Individualism and Spontaneous Order; The Importance of Museums.

The Contingent Beginnings of Richard OwenThe Domestication of Analysis: Synthesis: Owen's Reinterpretation of John Hunter; Owen's Rise; 2. Analysis Part Two; Neurophysiology as Analysis: Vivisections; The Reflex Arc, Analysis and Compound Individuality; Lower Animals, Disunity and the Reflex Arc; The Bodily Oeconomy; Compound Individuality and Levels of Organization: Phrenology and Wiganism; Hierarchy and Internal Unity; 3. Synthesis; Cephalization; Centripetal Development; Cephalization and Recapitulation; Exemplars of Cephalization; The Creation and Reception of a New Exemplar.

Monsters as Synthesized (Truly Compound) Organisms4. Regeneration as Reproduction; Exemplars: Recurring Puzzles and Animal-Researcher Pairings; Why did Owen call it Vegetative Repetition?; Parthenogenesis then Metagenesis; The Acceptance of Metagenesis; 5. 1837: The Accession of Palaetiology; William Whewell and Palaetiology, 1837; Martin Barry and the Introduction of von Baerian Embryology to Britain, 1837; William B. Carpenter and the Reinterpretation of Zoophytes; Vivaria and Questions of Evidence; Huxley, Palaetiologist; 6. Alternative Explanations and New Generations, 1850-1858.

Huxley Cultivates London MentorsZoöids and Individuality; Private Attacks upon Owen Begin; Public Attacks upon Owen Begin; Reproductive Masses: 'Buds' or 'Pseudova'?; Professionalization as Exclusion; Conclusion; Individual Agency and Styles of Reasoning?; Notes; Works Cited; Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 02 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786611125042

9780822981831

0822981831

9781317314769

131731476X

9781315653006

1315653001

9781317314776

1317314778

9781281125040

1281125040

9781851965489

1851965483

OCLC:

476125211