Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

This is Biology: The Science of the Living World

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Biology until recently has been the neglected stepchild of science, and many educated people have little grasp of how biology explains the natural world. Yet to address the major political and moral questions that face us today, we must acquire an understanding of their biological roots. This magisterial new book by Ernst Mayr will go far to remedy this situation. An eyewitness to this century's relentless biological advance and the creator of some of its most important concepts, Mayr is uniquely qualified to offer a vision of science that places biology firmly at the center, and a vision of biology that restores the primacy of holistic, evolutionary thinking.

As he argues persuasively, the physical sciences cannot address many aspects of nature that are unique to life. Living organisms must be understood at every level of organization; they cannot be reduced to the laws of physics and chemistry. Mayr's approach is refreshingly at odds with the reductionist thinking that dominated scientific research earlier in this century, and will help to redirect how people think about the natural world.

This Is Biology can also be read as a life history of the discipline--from its roots in the work of Aristotle, through its dormancy during the Scientific Revolution and its flowering in the hands of Darwin, to its spectacular growth with the advent of molecular techniques. Mayr maps out the territorial overlap between biology and the humanities, especially history and ethics, and carefully describes important distinctions between science and other systems of thought, including theology. Both as an overview of the sciences of life and as the culmination of a remarkable life in science, This Is Biology will richly reward professionals and general readers alike.

Language: English

Pages: 323

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Belknap Press

Release: September 15, 1998

ISBN: 0674884698

ISBN 13: 9780674884694

This is Biology: The Science of the Living World

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Biology until recently has been the neglected stepchild of science, and many educated people have little grasp of how biology explains the natural world. Yet to address the major political and moral questions that face us today, we must acquire an understanding of their biological roots. This magisterial new book by Ernst Mayr will go far to remedy this situation. An eyewitness to this century's relentless biological advance and the creator of some of its most important concepts, Mayr is uniquely qualified to offer a vision of science that places biology firmly at the center, and a vision of biology that restores the primacy of holistic, evolutionary thinking.

As he argues persuasively, the physical sciences cannot address many aspects of nature that are unique to life. Living organisms must be understood at every level of organization; they cannot be reduced to the laws of physics and chemistry. Mayr's approach is refreshingly at odds with the reductionist thinking that dominated scientific research earlier in this century, and will help to redirect how people think about the natural world.

This Is Biology can also be read as a life history of the discipline--from its roots in the work of Aristotle, through its dormancy during the Scientific Revolution and its flowering in the hands of Darwin, to its spectacular growth with the advent of molecular techniques. Mayr maps out the territorial overlap between biology and the humanities, especially history and ethics, and carefully describes important distinctions between science and other systems of thought, including theology. Both as an overview of the sciences of life and as the culmination of a remarkable life in science, This Is Biology will richly reward professionals and general readers alike.

Language: English

Pages: 323

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Belknap Press

Release: September 15, 1998

ISBN: 0674884698

ISBN 13: 9780674884694

More books from Ernst W. Mayr

What Evolution Is

The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance

4.3/5 ( ratings)

What Makes Biology Unique?: Considerations on the Autonomy of a Scientific Discipline

4.1/5 ( ratings)

One Long Argument: Charles Darwin and the Genesis of Modern Evolutionary Thought

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist

4.2/5 ( ratings)

The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology & Biogeography

3.4/5 ( ratings)

Populations, Species, and Evolution: An Abridgment of Animal Species and Evolution

Evolution and the Diversity of Life: Selected Essays

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Computational Graph Theory

Computer Algebra in Scientific Computing: 10th International Workshop, Casc 2007, Bonn, Germany, September 16-20, 2007, Proceedings

Computer Algebra in Scientific Computing: CASC 2000

Uma Ampla Discussão: Charles Darwin e a Gênese do Moderno Pensamento Evolucionário

Systematics and the Origin of Species from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist

Histoire de la biologie : Diversité, évolution et hérédité, tome 2 : De Darwin à nos jours

Die Hauptbücherei Wien / The Main City Library Vienna: Ein Bau von Ernst Mayr / A Building by Ernst Mayr (German and English Edition)

Una larga controversia: Darwin y el darwinismo

Principles of Systematic Zoology

Evoluzione e varietà dei viventi

Birds of the Philippines

Lectures on Proof Verification and Approximation Algorithms (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

Rate this book!

Write a review?