• Login
    View Item 
    •   KovsieScholar Home
    • KovsieJournals
    • Acta Academica
    • AA 2003 Volume 35 Issue 3
    • View Item
    •   KovsieScholar Home
    • KovsieJournals
    • Acta Academica
    • AA 2003 Volume 35 Issue 3
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    The Copernican turn of biology in the early twentieth century

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    academ_v35_n3_a3.pdf (94.02Kb)
    Date
    2003
    Author
    Strauss, Danie
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    English: The emergence of the term Umwelt within twentieth-century biological thought is reminiscent of the turn towards the “subject” in early modern philosophy. The term Umwelt originally had a spatial connotation, which explains why analysis reveals an interdisciplinary terminological connectedness transcending the confines of any specific scientific discipline. This interdisciplinary consideration opens the way for systematic perspectives developed against the relevant historical background, in particular the Umweltlehre of Jakob von Uexküll, who explicitly introduced the notion of a “subject” into biological research. His contribution is assessed in terms of multivocal spatial terms such as (bio-)milieu and (bio)-sphere and the subject-object relations found in nature (within the plant and animal realms). This highlights the inherent limitations of the Umwelt concept, also explaining why in its purely biological sense it cannot be applied to the domain of human experience.
     
    Afrikaans: Deur te let op die wyse waarop die term Umwelt beslag gekry het binne die biologiese denke van die twintigste eeu word ’n mens herinner aan die Kopernikaanse omwenteling ten gunste van die “subjek” wat in die moderne filosofie ingetree het. Oorspronklik besit die term Umwelt ’n ruimtelike konnotasie. Daarom lê ’n analise daarvan ’n interdissiplinêre verweefdheid bloot wat die grense van enige spesifieke dissipline te bowe gaan. Hierdie interdissiplinêre oorweging open die weg vir sistematiese perspektiewe teen die relevante historiese agtergrond, spesifiek die Umweltlehre van Jakob von Uexküll. Hy het (in aansluiting by Kant) die nosie van ’n “subjek” in biologiese navorsing aan die orde gestel. Hierdie bydrae word beoordeel in die lig van terme soos bio-milieu and bio-sfeer in terme van die talle subjek-objek relasies wat in die natuur (beide binne die ryke van plante en diere) aangetref word. Hierdie oorwegings belig argumente op grond waarvan die ongekwalifiseerde toepassing van die begrip Umwelt op die menslike ervaring bevraagteken moet word.
     
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/11660/6822
    Collections
    • AA 2003 Volume 35 Issue 3

    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2016  DuraSpace
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
     

     

    Browse

    All of KovsieScholarCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2016  DuraSpace
    Contact Us | Send Feedback