Please note: In order to keep Hive up to date and provide users with the best features, we are no longer able to fully support Internet Explorer. The site is still available to you, however some sections of the site may appear broken. We would encourage you to move to a more modern browser like Firefox, Edge or Chrome in order to experience the site fully.

Supporting your high street Find out how »
Pneumatology of Matter - A philosophical inquiry into the origins and meaning of modern physical theory, Paperback / softback Book

Pneumatology of Matter - A philosophical inquiry into the origins and meaning of modern physical theory Paperback / softback

Paperback / softback

Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks

Description

Throughout history philosophers have posited souls, vital spirits and other active principles in living beings in order to explain their differences from non-living beings.

With the arrival of genetics and evolutionary biology, however, it now seems possible to account for these differences without assuming such principles.

Living beings are henceforth to be understood mechanically, as products of self-replicating microscopic objects and selective environmental conditions, rather than pneumatically, in terms of active principles.

It is very remarkable, therefore, that physics has since abandoned the mechanical model of explanation, which it gave to biology, and returned to the pneumatical model, applying it not merely to living beings but to matter quite generally.

The conceptual origins and philosophical significance of this remarkable development are explored in the present work.

Part One examines the crucial role played by field theory in the decline of mechanism in physics and its replacement by pneumatism.

Part Two discusses the importance of this development for metaphysics and the theory of human nature.

Information

Save 6%

£19.99

£18.79

Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks
Add to Basket
Sign in to add to wishlist
 
Free Home Delivery

on all orders

 
Pick up orders

from local bookshops

Information