The restless clock : a history of the centuries-long argument over what makes living things tick

The restless clock : a history of the centuries-long argument over what makes living things tick / Jessica Riskin.

Today, a scientific explanation is not meant to ascribe agency to natural phenomena: we would not say a rock falls because it seeks the center of the earth. Even for living things, in the natural sciences and often in the social sciences, the same is true. A modern botanist would not say that plants...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Riskin, Jessica (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2016.
Subjects:
Vitalism.
Mechanism (Philosophy)
Life (Biology)
Science > Philosophy.
Table of Contents:
  • Introduction: Huxley's joke, or the problem of agency in nature and science
  • 1. Machines in the garden
  • 2. Descartes among the machines
  • 3. The passive telescope or the restless clock
  • 4. The first androids
  • 5. The adventures of Mr. Machine
  • 6. Dilemmas of a self-organizing machine
  • 7. Darwin between the machines
  • 8. The mechanical egg and the intelligent egg
  • 9. Outside in
  • 10. History matters.

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