The problem of life : an essay in the origins of biological thought

The Problem of Life 'VITRUVIAN' MAN Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing illustrates the theory of proportion worked out by the first-century Roman architect, Vitruvius. The theory proposed that a wellproportioned human body with feet together and arms outstretched fitted exactly into a square: a spread-eagled body, on the other hand, could be inscribed in a circle centred on the navel. Although Leonardo collected much data from living models, the reduction of human to geometrical proportion proved impossible. This Procrustean exercise has, however, been continued in a more abstract manner, and with greater success, by Leonardo's modern successors: the molecular biologists and biophysicists. Front Matter....Pages i-xxiv The Act of Imagination....Pages 1-9 Beginnings....Pages 10-16 The Palaeontology of Some Key Words....Pages 17-26 Miletus....Pages 27-34 The Italian Shore....Pages 35-44 Elea and After....Pages 45-54 The Timaeus....Pages 55-66 Aristotle: Metaphysics....Pages 67-76 Aristotle: Physical Sciences....Pages 77-87 Aristotle: Life Sciences....Pages 88-101 Athenian After-Glow....Pages 102-118 Alchemy....Pages 119-125 Mutation of the Paradigm....Pages 126-139 Escape from the Labyrinth....Pages 140-158 Descartes....Pages 159-176 Enlightenment....Pages 177-195 The Mechanisation of Physiology....Pages 196-217 The Romantic Reaction....Pages 218-235 The Origin of Species....Pages 236-253 The Mechanism of Heredity....Pages 254-261 A Clockwork Embryo?....Pages 262-280 Deactivation of the Mind....Pages 281-310 Back Matter....Pages 311-343