Betrachtungen über das Wesen der Lebenserschemungen. Ein Beitrag zum Begriff des Protoplasmas

Abstract

THIS is an essay—critical and constructive—on the mechanical and vitalistic interpretations of the phenomena of life. Biology has oscillated from the one position to the other since the days of Harvey. Some progress in the physico-chemical analysis of an abstracted part or process of the organism is made, and hope rises in the biologist's breast that the secret of life is going to be discovered. Always, however, residual phenomena are detected, and there is a retreat to some form of vitalism. Prof. Neumeister gives a scholarly survey of the history, expounding the positions of Johannes Müller, Von Baer, Lotze, Du Bois-Reymond, Fechner, Wundt, Bunge, and many more. His own position, which closely resembles that of Johannes Müller, may be briefly stated as follows:— Truly vital phenomena cannot be interpreted in terms of physico-chemical categories; life is an inter-relation of the physical and the psychical—an inseparable, unknowable inter-relation; there are no forces operative in protoplasm which are not operative in non-living matter, but in all active protoplasm there are psychical qualities of a transcendental character.

Betrachtungen über das Wesen der Lebenserscheinungen. Ein Beitrag zum Begriff des Protoplasmas.

By Prof. R. Neumeister. Pp. iv + 107. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1903.) Price 2 marks.