Philosophy of Biology

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There are three models or paradigms which provide different approaches to the science of biology, the mechanistic, vitalist and organismic. Within the confines of institutional science, the mechanistic theory has been almost completely dominant for over fifty years. Nevertheless, it has a number of important disadvantages, which will be discussed in the first of this series of articles. Then, in the second and third articles, the vitalist and organismic alternatives will be considered, and the possibility of their future development examined.

Part I

Rupert Sheldrake

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Philosophy of Biology

Part I The Mechanistic Theory of Life

Part II Vitalism

Part III Organicism

Plant and Cell Biology

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