`...interesting, instructive and eminently readable.' - Mary J. Seller, The Expository Times The book shows how development in the biological sciences has been influenced by ethical, religious, social and philosophical assumptions as to the nature of life and mankind's place in the world. These beliefs have been presupposed in experimental investigations as well as in biological theories. The book is not intended as a comprehensive history of biology, rather some of that history is used as evidence of external influences. To this end there are accounts of past investigations (from the time of Aristotle to the present day).

Autorentext

JENNIFER TRUSTED

Inhalt

Acknowledgements - Preface - Primitive Beliefs, Classical Theories, Early Practices - From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance: From Scholasticism to the Study of Nature - The Appeal to Physical Explanations - Interactions: Fact and Theory - Arguments and Counter-Arguments: the Creation - Idealism and Materialism - Natural Selection and Progress - Secular Beliefs: Suppositions and Presuppositions - Molecular Biology: Metaphorical Animism and a New Teleology - Notes and References - Index