Problems of Life Research

Professor Wilhelm Blasius, physiologist at Giessen in West Germany, has written a book "Probleme der Lebensforschung" (Verlag Rombach, Freiburg 1973) which - I understand - is to be published in an English version. To me it has been of interest as an orientation in a world of traditional German thinking, best known from Goethe's natural philosophy of perceptible "Ur­ bilder", which perhaps in English could be rendered descriptively by calling it an inner vision of further irre­ ducible totalities. It is in contemporary language a kind of intuitive 'holistic' insight which represents understanding different from that of natural science. The latter is devoted to the study of causal chains, is largely experimental and in its aim ultimately 'reduc­ tionist' -to use another modern term. Goethe's approach is reincarnated in the "Wesenslehre" of the late Ludwig Klages (1872-1956) and in the thinking of Carl Gustav Caruso To Klages the perceived image alone is the meaning of everything in this world and in this sense he is the advocate of a psychological phenom­ enology that is an end in itself. Originally trained as a chemist Klages soon turned to philosophy and de­ veloped a system of concepts supposed to give a deeper insight into the essence of life than did the endless causal chains of natural science. Blasius makes much use of the concepts of this philosopher, in particular his ideas on 'polarities'.

I. Epistemological and Methodological Foundations of Research into Life.- 1. Introduction.- 1.1. Historical Review of Modification in the Concept “Physiology”.- 2. Epistemological Foundations of the Science of Life.- 2.1. The Natural Philosophical or Holistic Theory of Life.- 2.2. The Natural Scientific or Reductionist (Teilinhaltliche) Theory of Life.- 2.3. Limitations of the Two Lines of Thought.- 3. The Scope of the Natural Scientific Theory of Life.- 3.1. Methodological Foundations of Physiology as Natural Science.- 3.2. Natural Laws and Rules.- 3.3. Limits of a Metrical and Mathematical Treatment of the Phenomena of Life.- 3.4. Mathematical Methods.- 3.5. Parameters.- 3.6. Validity of Laws.- 4. Special Attributes of Organisms.- 4.1. Cellular Organization.- 4.2. Chemical Constitution of Organisms.- 4.3. Transformation of Energy.- 4.4. Relations with the Environment.- 4.5. Evolution of Life.- 4.6. The Course of Life.- 4.7. Excitability.- 4.8. Capacity for Regulation.- 4.9. Animation.- 5. The Flow of Energy as the Most Important Principle of Scientific Biology.- 5.1. The Energetics of Closed Physical Systems.- 5.2. The Organism as an Open System.- 5.3. General Properties of Open Systems.- 5.4. Kinetics of Open Systems.- 5.5. The Thermodynamics of Open Systems.- 5.6. Provenance of the Energy for Living Processes.- 6. Summary.- II. Rhythm and Polarity ― Physiological Analysis and Phenomenological Interpretation.- 1. Causal Analysis of Periodic Processes.- 1.1. Phases of Rest and Activity in Animals.- 1.2. Phases of Activity and Rest in Man.- 2. A Critical Analysis of a Causal-Analytic Interpretation of Rhythmic Phenomena.- 3. Phenomenological Description of Rhythm and Polarity.- 4. Summary.- III. Bodily Movement and Exercise ― Physiological Analysis and Phenomenological Interpretation.- 1. Phenomenological Interpretation of Bodily Movement.- 2. Physiological Analysis of Bodily Movements.- 2.1. The External Movement of the Organism in the Interplay of Muscles and Nervous System.- 2.1.1. The Basic Properties of Muscles.- 2.2. The Role of the Muscle Spindles in the Interplay of Muscles and Nervous System.- 2.3. Physiological and Morphological Changes in the Organism during Physical Exercise.- 2.4. Muscular Adaptation.- 2.5. Adaptation of Heart Muscle.- 2.6. Adaptation of the Blood.- 2.7. Functional Adaptation.- 2.7.1. Circulation.- 2.7.2. Respiration.- 2.7.3. Utilization.- 2.7.4. Autonomic Nervous System.- 3. Exercise as a Therapeutic Measure.- 4. Summary.- IV. Human Language ― Physiological Analysis and Phenomenological Interpretation.- 1 Physiological Analysis of the Sound of Speech and of Hearing.- 1.1. The Activity Cycle of Hearing and Speech.- 1.2. The Theory of Centers and Plasticity for the Explanation of Language.- 1.3. Electroencephalographic Results of Excitation of the Cerebral Cortex through Optical and Acoustic Stimuli.- 1.4. Electroencephalographic Observations during Mental Activity.- 2. A Phenomenological View of Language.- 2.1. Soul and Spirit of Language.- 2.2. The Contrast between Linguistic Meanings and Linguistic Concepts.- 2.3. The Difference between Meaning and Conception Words.- 3. Summary.- 4. Postscript.- V. Stereoscopic Vision and Color Discrimination: Their Typological Polarity and Relations to Pictorial Creativeness.- 1. Physiological Methods.- 1.1. Testing Stereoscopic Vision.- 1.2. Testing the Capacity to Discriminate Color.- 2. Psychological Methods.- 2.1. Investigation of Color Selection.- 2.2. The Creativity Test.- 2.3. The Self-Diagnosis Test.- 2.4. The Experimental Material.- 3. Performance Differences in Stereoscopic Vision.- 4. Performance Differences in Color Discrimination.- 5. Typological and Sex Differences in the Kind of Creativity.- 6. Stereoscopic Vision and Color Discrimination in Relation to Kind of Creativity.- 7. The Complementary Behavior of Stereoscopic Visual Capacity and Color Discrimination Ability.- 8. Color Discrimination, Stereoscopic Vision and the Kind of Creativity in Relation to Color Selection.- 9. On the Polarity of Form and Color Perception.- 10. Color Selection as a Polar Phenomenon.- 11. Summary.- VI. Quantitative Thinking in the Life Research.- VII. The Essence of Health and Its Maintenance.- VIII. Bibliography.- IX. Author Index.- X. Subject Index.