Lecture

The Naturalization of Life

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In course

HUM-318: Sciences, raison et foi

Cet enseignement a pour but de revenir sur les conflits entre sciences et religions. Des conflits inévitables quand la science décida d'aborder des thèmes qui recouvrent ceux discutés dans les textes sacrés, en particulier la question de l'origine du monde ...

Description

This lecture explores the transition of living organisms from religious and spiritual interpretations to scientific explanations, focusing on essentialism, fixism, anthropocentrism, and dualism. It delves into the strategies developed to naturalize life, such as identifying cells, describing embryo development, and de-hierarchizing species relationships. The emergence of the cell concept, the debate between globulists and fibrillists, and the impact of microscopes on scientific hypotheses are discussed. The lecture also covers the historical perspectives on spontaneous generation, the conflicts between preformationists and epigeneticists, and the shift towards scientific explanations. It concludes with an analysis of Darwin's revolutionary ideas, including his rejection of spiritual and essentialist views, his proposal of a naturalistic and materialistic perspective, and the challenges his theory faced from creationist and spiritualist interpretations.

Instructor

Jean-François Bert

Teaching & PhD Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Alina Volynskaya Courses Anthropology of belief HUM-382 This course is an introduction to the question of conspiracy theories especially in the field of science Darwin, religion and science HUM-365 This course takes the long history of opponents of Darwin and Darwinism (creationists, neo-creationists, supporters of intelligent design) to try to understand their strategies and arguments. Sciences and religions I HU

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Related concepts (32)

Scientific method

The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientific method for additional detail.) It involves careful observation, applying rigorous skepticism about what is observed, given that cognitive assumptions can distort how one interprets the observation.

Materialism

Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions of material things. According to philosophical materialism, mind and consciousness are by-products or epiphenomena of material processes (such as the biochemistry of the human brain and nervous system), without which they cannot exist. Materialism directly contrasts with idealism, according to which consciousness is the fundamental substance of nature.

Scientific Revolution

The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transformed the views of society about nature. The Scientific Revolution took place in Europe in the second half of the Renaissance period, with the 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus publication De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) often cited as its beginning.

Virus classification

Virus classification is the process of naming viruses and placing them into a taxonomic system similar to the classification systems used for cellular organisms. Viruses are classified by phenotypic characteristics, such as morphology, nucleic acid type, mode of replication, host organisms, and the type of disease they cause. The formal taxonomic classification of viruses is the responsibility of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) system, although the Baltimore classification system can be used to place viruses into one of seven groups based on their manner of mRNA synthesis.

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a book about the history of science by philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn. Its publication was a landmark event in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science. Kuhn challenged the then prevailing view of progress in science in which scientific progress was viewed as "development-by-accumulation" of accepted facts and theories. Kuhn argued for an episodic model in which periods of conceptual continuity where there is cumulative progress, which Kuhn referred to as periods of "normal science", were interrupted by periods of revolutionary science.

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