Notions about life adopted within different cultural traditions reveal similarities. According to anthropologists, these similarities show that humans share a basic apprehension of the world, allowing them to tell the living from the nonliving. Some scholars consider this an outcome of evolutionary adaptation. The present article offers a survey of the views of life formulated over the past twentyfour centuries that retain a bearing on the life sciences as they are practiced today. It will be argued that, at least since Charles Darwin and Louis Pasteur, notions about life and the uses of life in the social and economic sphere have been woven into a common fabric.
G. Pancaldi (2012). What is life? A historical survey. CHICHESTER : John Wiley & Sons [10.1002/9780470015902.a0023957].
What is life? A historical survey
PANCALDI, GIULIANO
2012
Abstract
Notions about life adopted within different cultural traditions reveal similarities. According to anthropologists, these similarities show that humans share a basic apprehension of the world, allowing them to tell the living from the nonliving. Some scholars consider this an outcome of evolutionary adaptation. The present article offers a survey of the views of life formulated over the past twentyfour centuries that retain a bearing on the life sciences as they are practiced today. It will be argued that, at least since Charles Darwin and Louis Pasteur, notions about life and the uses of life in the social and economic sphere have been woven into a common fabric.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
