Discovering life, manufacturing life
Subtitle: how the experimental method shaped life sciences
By: Pierre V. Vignais and Paulette M. Vignais ; translation by Martha Willison
Contributors: Vignais, P. M. (Paulette M.); Grenoble Sciences (Organisation)
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Dordrecht [the Netherlands]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 418
ISBN-13: 9789048137664
Subjects: Biology; Methodology; History
Work titles: Science expérimentale et connaissance du vivant
Description: This book tells the story of how the experimental method established itself and took a predominant role in the life sciences. While life sciences continue to advance and knowledge becomes more widespread and accessible, philosophers now focus on problems of ethics particularly with respect to the reproductive functions that contemporary biology is able to manipulate and modify.
Notes: Originally published in French as: Science expérimentale et connaissance du vivant : la méthode et les concepts. Les Ulis, France : EDP sciences, c2006.

"Selected by Grenoble Sciences"--Cover.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [353]-370) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: The roots of experimental science from ancient Greece to the Renaissance. Scientific rationality in ancient Greece; title: The philosophical and technological heritage of the Middle Ages; title: Conclusion : at the dawn of the scientific method; title: The birth of the experimental method in the 17th and 18th centuries. The discovery of the circulation of the blood by W. Harvey; title: How were the movements of the heart and the blood explained before Harvey?; title: The first, faltering steps of experimental science applied to living beings; title: The experimental method and its impact on the physical sciences in the 17th century; title: Opening up chemistry to quantitative experimentation in the 18th century; title: Experimental science as seen by the philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries; title: Is there an explanatory logic for the birth of the experimental method?; title: Conclusion : the marriage of techniques and ideas; title: The impact of determinism in the life sciences of the 19th and 20th centuries. The recognition of physiology as an experimental science in the 19th century; title: Determinism, the philosophical foundation stone of experimental physiology; title: The impact of technology on the life sciences in the 19th century; title: New disciplines in the life sciences in the 19th century and their methodological support; title: The idea of quantification in the life sciences; title: A new experimental order for the life sciences in the 20th century; title: Opening up biological experimentation to reductionism; title: The experimental method faced with contemporary trends in philosophy and in social life; title: Conclusion : determinism and the expansion of the experimental method from the organ to the molecule; title: Challenges for experimentation on living beings at the dawn of the 21st century. The accession of biotechnology towards a new paradigm for the experimental method; title: Towards a mastery of the functions of living beings for utilitarian purposes; title: The progress of medicine face to face with the experimental method; title: Towards a global understanding of the functions of living beings; title: The design and meaning of words in the experimental process; title: The experimental method, understanding of living beings and society; title: The place of the scientific researcher in the changing role of biotechnology; title: Conclusion : looking at the present in the light of the past; title: Epilogue.