Mechanism, life and personality : an examination of the mechanistic theory of life and mind / by J.S. Haldane.

  • John Scott Haldane
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mechanism, life and personality : an examination of the mechanistic theory of life and mind / by J.S. Haldane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/168 (page 6)
    facts, therefore, biology can apparently be nothing but applied physics and chemistry. When we come to matters of detail it ap¬ pears that biology does nothing, and can do nothing, but ask physical and chemical questions, and obtain physical and chemical answers, in so far as the answers are more than partial answers. In tracing, say, the development of an organism, or investigating the process of secretion, we, of course, obtain, in the present state of knowledge, only partial answers. We may not be able to give a complete statement in physical and chemical terms of the processes of develop¬ ment or of secretion; but it remains true, nevertheless, that the facts we are ascertain¬ ing are apparently nothing but physical and chemical facts, however imperfectly defined. Beyond these facts all is more or less empty speculation, which scientific men would pro¬ bably do well to avoid. For further support the mechanistic theory can appeal to the actual history of biology, and particularly of physiology. Apart from the constant controversies (to which reference will be made shortly) between mechanists