Document Detail


Julius Caesar Scaliger on plant generation and the question of species constancy.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20695395     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
The sixteenth-century physician and philosopher Julius Caesar Scaliger combines the view that living beings are individuated by a single substantial form with the view that the constituents of the organic body retain their identity due to the continued existence and operation of their own substantial forms. This essay investigates the implications of Scaliger's account of subordinate and dominant substantial forms for the question of the constancy of biological species. According to Scaliger, biological mutability involves not only change on the ontological level of accidents but, in some cases, also change on the level of substantial forms. While he shares the received view that substantial forms themselves cannot undergo change, he maintains that relations of domination and subordination between substantial forms can undergo change. He uses his theory of how such changes can occur to explain cases of revertible plant degeneration. Moreover, in his view plants that belong to previously unknown biological species can emerge from changes in the relations between the many forms contained in plant seeds.
Authors:
Andreas Blank
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Biography; Historical Article; Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Early science and medicine     Volume:  15     ISSN:  1383-7427     ISO Abbreviation:  Early Sci Med     Publication Date:  2010  
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-08-10     Completed Date:  2010-09-03     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9610931     Medline TA:  Early Sci Med     Country:  Netherlands    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  266-86     Citation Subset:  QIS    
Affiliation:
Department ofPhilosophy, University of Paderborn, Warburger Str. 100, D-33098 Paderborn, Germany. andreasblank@hotmail.com
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
History, 16th Century
Natural History / history*
Philosophy / history*
Plant Physiological Processes
Reproduction
Species Specificity
Personal Name Subject
Personal Name Subject:
Julius Caesar Scaliger

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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