Emergent evolution and the social / by William Morton Wheeler.

  • William Morton Wheeler
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Emergent evolution and the social / by William Morton Wheeler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    45/68 page 41
    SOME EARLY AND CONTEMPORARY ORGANICISTS The organicist view of Nature, im¬ plying as it does the notions of “ emer¬ gence ” and “ Gestalt ”, seems to be older and to have been more widely entertained than present discussions might lead us to believe. The theory of the organism as different from a sum of its parts and as depending on their “ mixture ” or structural arrangement goes back at least to G. E. Stahl (1660- 1734), J. C. Reil (1759-1813) and C. A. Rudolphi (1771-1832). This is shown by Nordenskiold (1926) in his discussion of these investigators. Stahl was, of course, an arrant vitalist, but both Reil and Rudolphi would be regarded by most biologists as thorough-bred mechanists. As we approach the middle decades of the nineteenth century we come upon statements of greater interest in regard to emergence in two of the
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