Physics and Politics in the Early Federal Republic of Germany. Max Born, Werner Heisenberg and Pascual Jordan between Scientific and Political Discourse. – Contrasting the historiography of two major developments in 20th century German history, the creation of quantum mechanics in 1925 and the dispute on the nuclear armament of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1957, the question is raised to which extent the scientific culture was able to bridge political disagreement within the German physicists' community. A twofold story (...) of the private and public exchange between Max Born, Werner Heisenberg and Pascual Jordan among others on the scientists' position to nuclear armament on the one hand and the writing of the history of quantum mechanics on the other hand displays different types of relating scientific work and moral responsibility. Neither politics nor science went on unaltered after the disputes between physics and politics in the early Federal Republic of Germany. (shrink)

(2001). The Care-Based Ethic of Nazi Medicine and the Moral Importance of What We Care About. The American Journal of Bioethics: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 64-74.

The ArgumentBiology, understood in turn-of-the-century Germany to include psychology, held a central but enigmatic place in the philosopher Ernst Cassirer's work. From his earliest studies with Hermann Cohen through his long engagement with the theoretical biology of Jakob von Uexküll and Adolf Meyer-Abich, Cassirer consistently used the history and practice of biology to examine and delineate a set of characteristic tensions between the natural and cultural sciences. This paper examines Cassirer's treatment of this theme by addressing two contrasting interpretations he (...) gave — in hisPhilosophy of Symbolic Forms and in hisEssay on Man — to the benchmark case from empirical psychology of the “talking” horse “Clever Hans.” The original case involved the horse's ability to signal answers to remarkably complex questions by stamping its hooves, an ability that ultimately appeared to rest on a capacity to detect extremely minute unintentional movement cues in its auditors as it reached the appropriate answer. Due to both Cassirer's shifting description of the case within his philosophy and the case's inherent polyvalence, Cassirer's remarks provide a useful window onto the social, epistemological, and stylistic meaning of his “unified” philosophy of human culture and science. (shrink)

Van der Klaauw was a professor of Descriptive Zoology in the period 1934–1958. This paper presents a concise annotated overview of his publications. In his work three main topics can be recognized: comparative anatomy of the mammalian auditory region, theoretical studies about ecology and ecological morphology, and vertebrate functional morphology. In particular van der Klaauw developed new concepts on functional morphology, based upon a holistic approach. A series of studies in functional morphology of Vertebrates by his students is added. An (...) overview of recent morphological and theoretical studies show that this new approach had a long lasting impact in studies of functional morphology. (shrink)

Alle Formen von Leben entstanden aus der primitiven Zelle, betrachtet eher als eine Art denn als ein Individuum, welches die Fähigkeit für ununterbrochene Selbst-Teilung besass. Fortgesetzte Vermehrung der Zellen mag eins von drei verschiedenen Verfahren folgen: 1. Die zwei Zellen von jeder Teilung hervorgehend, mögen sich vollständig von einander trennen; diese Linie der Entwicklung der primitiven Zelle rief die Protozoa hervor. 2. Während die Zellen sich teilen, mögen sie mehr oder weniger unregelmässig zusammen hängen. Diese Linie rief die Porifera hervor. (...) 3. Die sich teilenden Zellen mögen regelmässig zusammenhängen, eine Blastula und eine Gastrula bildend. Die Gastrula ist fähig eine unbestimmte Anzahl von Variationen hervorzubringen, und durch diese Variationen in der Gastrula entstanden alle Tier-Typen ausser der Protozoa und der Porifera.Diese Linien der Entwicklung von der einzelnen Zelle stellen alle die physischen und geometrischen entfaltungsfähigen Möglichkeiten, denkbar im Falle von Zellen, dar, die die Kraft besitzen sich durch Selbst-Teilung zu vermehren. Da diese entfaltungsfähigen Linien einfach mechanische Antworten auf die geometrischen und physischen Eigentümlichkeiten sind, eigen der Vermehrung der sich selbst teilenden Zellen, so gibt es keine Rechtfertigung für die Annahme einer bestimmten Ordnung in ihrem Vorkommen. Es ist logischer anzunehmen, dass die primitive Zelle gleich nach ihrem Erscheinen sich nach jeder möglichen Richtung gleichzeitig entwickelte, kurz, dass alle die Haupttypen des Tierlebens gleichzeitig erschienen.Es gibt keinen Beweis gegen diese Annahme, welche in Übereinstimmung mit dem geologischen Hintergrund des Lebens ist, wie wir es verstehen; mit der Fossilien-Urkunde, wie illustriert durch Fossilien von genau vergleichbaren Umgebungen; und mit der angenommenen Nötigkeit für ein System von Kontrolle und Ausgleich zwischen den verschiedenen Typen von Leben.Toutes les formes de la vie proviennent d'une cellule primitive unique, considérée comme espèce plutôt que comme individu, possédant le pouvoir de se multiplier par bi-partition répétée. La propagation continue de cellules peut avoir lieu de trois façons différentes: 1. Les deux cellules, après la division, peuvent se séparer complètement l'une de l'autre; cette forme de propagation de la cellule primitive a donné lieu aux Protozoaires. 2. Les cellules, en se divisant, peuvent rester liées plus ou moins irrégulièrement; cette forme de propagation caractérise les Porifères . 3. Les cellules, en se divisant, peuvent rester liées selon un arrangement régulier, en formant une blastula et une gastrula; la gastrula peut être formée selon un infinité de modalités, et c'est à ces différences de la formation de la gastrula que sont dues toutes les espèces animales exceptés les Protozoaires et les spongiées.Ces formes de propagation de la cellule unique représentent la somme des possibilités d'arrangement permises par les lois de la géométrie et de la physique. Du moment que ces procédés de propagation sont soumis à un arrangement mécanique gouverné par des lois physiques et géométriques, il n'y a pas lieu d'admettre qu'il y ait, dans leur succession, d'ordre déterminé. Il est plus logique de supposer qu'aussitôt parue la cellule primitive se soit propager simutanément dans toutes les directions concevables, en d'autres mots que toutes les phyla animales se soient différenciées au même moment.Aucune preuve ne démont cette hypothèse qui, d'ailleurs, concorde avec les prémises géologiques de la vie telles que nous les comprenons, avec les vestiges fossilisés de couches géologiques strictément comparable, et avec la théorie qui admet l'établissement de l'équilibre entre les différentes espèces animales au moyen d'un contrôle et de limitations mutuelles. (shrink)

In this history of medicine and the medical profession in the Third Reich, Michael Kater examines the career patterns, educational training, professional organization, and political socialization of German physicians under Hitler. His discussion ranges wi.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain (...) in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

Explores the development of the ideas of evolutionary biology, particularly as affected by the increasing understanding of genetics and of the chemical basis of inheritance.

Medicine Under the Nazis Robert Proctor. and environment in a wide range of bodily traits; he derived his data from the study of several thousand identical and nonidentical twins (see Figure 8). Verschuer's studies were followed by hundreds  ...

Natural selection is commonly interpreted as the fundamental mechanism of evolution. Questions about how selection theory can claim to be the all-sufficient explanation of evolution often go unanswered by today's neo-Darwinists, perhaps for fear that any criticism of the evolutionary paradigm will encourage creationists and proponents of intelligent design.In Biological Emergences, Robert Reid argues that natural selection is not the cause of evolution. He writes that the causes of variations, which he refers to as natural experiments, are independent of natural (...) selection; indeed, he suggests, natural selection may get in the way of evolution. Reid proposes an alternative theory to explain how emergent novelties are generated and under what conditions they can overcome the resistance of natural selection. He suggests that what causes innovative variation causes evolution, and that these phenomena are environmental as well as organismal.After an extended critique of selectionism, Reid constructs an emergence theory of evolution, first examining the evidence in three causal arenas of emergent evolution: symbiosis/association, evolutionary physiology/behavior, and developmental evolution. Based on this evidence of causation, he proposes some working hypotheses, examining mechanisms and processes common to all three arenas, and arrives at a theoretical framework that accounts for generative mechanisms and emergent qualities. Without selectionism, Reid argues, evolutionary innovation can more easily be integrated into a general thesis. Finally, Reid proposes a biological synthesis of rapid emergent evolutionary phases and the prolonged, dynamically stable, non-evolutionary phases imposed by natural selection. (shrink)