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Trembley's Polyp: The "animal-plant" that changed 18th century biology

Pasqual Bernat

Abstract


Abraham Trembley’s experiments with freshwater hydra not only surprised his contemporaries, but his results also caused a huge stir among the scientific community of his time. Ideas such as «The Great Chain of Being», the mechanism whereby living things were created, or the nature of the soul were strongly shaken.

Keywords


biology; Great Chain of Being; performationism; regeneration; soul; zoology

Full Text: PDF (Català) PDF (Español) PDF

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.78.2539

References


BAKER, J. R., 1952. Abraham Trembley of Geneva. Scientist and Philosopher (1710-1784). Edward Arnold. London.

BYNUM, W. F., 1975. «The Great Chain of Being after Forty Years. An Appraisal». History of Science, 113: 1-28.

CARLIN, L., 2000. «Leibniz’s Great Chain of Being». Studia leibnitiana, 32: 131-150.

DAWSON, V. P., 1987. Nature’s Enigma. The Problem of the Polyp in the Letters of Bonnet, Trembley and Réaumur. American Philosophical Society. Philadelphia.

LOVEJOY, A., 1936. The Great Chain of Being. A Study of the History of an Idea. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, MA.

Moscoso, J., 1995. «Experimentos de regeneración animal: 1686-1765. ¿Cómo defender la pre-existencia?». Dynamis, 15: 341-373.

MOSCOSO, J., 2000. Materialismo y religión. Ciencias de la vida en la Europa ilustrada. Ediciones del Serbal. Barcelona.

RATCLIFF, M. J., 2004. «Abraham Trembley’s Strategy of Generosity and the Scope of Celebrity in the Mid-eighteenth Century». Isis, 4: 555-575.

VARTANIAN, A., 1950. «Trembley’s Polyp, La Mettrie and Eighteenth-century French Materialism». Journal of the History of Ideas, 11(3): 259-286.


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