title: “Typological thinking” and neoplatonism in the 20th century biology
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Levit, Georgy S.
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Hossfeld, Uwe
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Lvov, Alexander A.
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.accessioned
metadata.value: 2023-09-26T16:11:06Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.available
metadata.value: 2023-09-26T16:11:06Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.issued
metadata.value: 2021
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.citation
metadata.value: Levit G. S., Hossfeld U., Lvov A. A. “Typological thinking” and neoplatonism in the 20th century biology. Philosophy of the History of Philosophy, 2021, vol. 2, рр. 35–55. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu34.2021.103 (In Russian)
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.identifier.other
metadata.value: https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu34.2021.103
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.uri
metadata.value: http://hdl.handle.net/11701/43992
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.description.abstract
metadata.value: The modern synthesis was born in the vehement discussions between English-, German-
  and Russian-speaking scientists — biologists and philosophers of science, and
  therefore these disputes were by default not only theoretical, but also concerned
  worldviews. Thus, E. Mayr named several reasons why German biologists were opposed
  to the Modern synthesis: they boil down to the commitment of German natural
  scientists to idealistic morphology, equated with typology and essentialism. He
  believed that the conflict between “population” (founded by Darwin) and “typological”
  (developed by Goethe) thinking seemed to be the cornerstone of the entire history
  of Western philosophy and natural science, and he defined essentialism, which
  he considered to form the basis for “typological thinking”, as a special ideology akin
  to Plato’s doctrine. Consequently, “typological thinking” reflects the fundamental
  ”dealistic” understanding of nature itself, which is quite typical for German-speaking researchers (not only biologists, but also some physicists) due to the special tradition
  of natural philosophy in Germany. That is why the refutation of essentialism in the
  history of science and philosophy of the twentieth century reflected the methodological
  opposition of the champions of intuitive knowledge and consistent empirical
  research. Neo-Platonism, reinforced by Goethe’s creative method, made it possible
  to look differently at the principles of the formation of scientific knowledge, the canonical
  analysis of which was presented by I. Kant, and the Neoplatonic trends that
  influenced “typological thinking” (as Mayr understood it) opposed positivist-oriented
  Darwinism. However, the breeding ground of the idealist morphologists was
  essentially the soil of purely speculative natural philosophy, which was losing ground
  under the pressure of more and more substantiated empirical data. Hence, it would
  not be an exaggeration to say that the case form the history of German-speaking
  biology of the last century, which the paper discusses, was fully reflected one of the
  fundamental problems in the history of philosophy, namely: the opposition of intuitive,
  or creative and discursive, or natural epistemologies.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.language.iso
metadata.value: ru
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.publisher
metadata.value: St Petersburg State University
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.relation.ispartofseries
metadata.value: Philosophy of the History of Philosophy;Volume 2
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: essentialism
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: typological thinking
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: population thinking
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: Neoplatonism
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: E. Mayr
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: J. W. Goethe
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: natural philosophy
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.title
metadata.value: “Typological thinking” and neoplatonism in the 20th century biology
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.type
metadata.value: Article
metadata.lang: en_GB
resources.filename: 35-55.pdf
resources.url: https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/43992/1/35-55.pdf
resources.format: Adobe PDF
resources.size: 914,92 kB