Acta Biotheoret ica 3 6 : 1 2 1 - 1 2 8 (1987) 121 © Mar t inus N i j h o f f / D r W. Junk Publishers, Dordrecht - Pr inted in the Nether lands

REVIEWS

R.Sattler, Biophi~osoph 9. Ina£ytic and hoZistic perspac-

ti~e~.- Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo, Springer

Verlag, 1986. Abb. XVI, 284 pp., DM 66. ISBN 3-540-16418-9

It is with very great interest that I read Sattlerl s book

on 'Biophilosophy'. His non-dogmatic approach is quite

refreshing. Compared with most other conventional 'fuzzy'

areas of human experience emphasized in the counterculture

(such as yoga and meditation) is astounding. He defends this

by making a distinction between explanation, limited to the

orderly aspects of nature and the formation of conceptual

abstractions, and understanding, which can only be achieved

through the intuitive mind that has reached complete harmony

with nature (p. 57-58). If Sattler has any bias, it is a

holistically inclined one, but even here Sattler avoids

absolutistic claims by putting forward the holistic approach

as one of the possible perspectives on the world. In the

Epilogue he writes that any conceptual representation of life

and the world is restrictive; life itself is always in-

finitely more than can be said or written about it. An

illustration of what this implies can be found in Chapter 10

where he concludes from the fact that living systems are open

toward and integrated in their environment, ultimately the

whole world, that we also have to include in our discussion

of life, hypotheses and theories that refer to the whole

world. He then gives a critical discussion of Pepper's so-

called seven 'world hypotheses', comprehended world-views

corroborated by facts. Scientific questioning may be

122

influenced by such world-views, as is evident with 'formism',

'mechanism', 'contextualism' and 'organicism'.

Sattler refers to the willingness of the reader to examine

the most basic foundations of biology. Sattler is convinced

that biology is rooted in philosophical assumptions and it is

quite clear from the very beginning that his conception of

'philosophy' is much wider than is usually assumed by

philosophers of science. This does not mean that the problems

traditionally dealt with by philosophers of science are left

out. In the first four chapters he refers to general methodo-

logical problems such as the role of theories and hypotheses,

laws and explanation, facts and concepts and classification.

Sattler tries to overcome the classic separation between so-

called internal and external (psychological and social)

factors in the 'systems model' of scientific methodology. In

this model the acceptance or rejection of scientific theories

is determined by three kinds of factors: empirical, logical

and psycho-social factors. According to this more relativis-

tic approach what may be seen as progress in science is the

development of complementary paradigms (pluralism). It is not

surprising in this context that Sattler emphasizes the

relativity of 'facts': "facts are produced by our act of

perception in a certain state of consciousness, and in-

fluenced by the conceptual framework used for description"

(Chapter 3).

What is quite unique to Sattler's book is his Chapter 5

where he illustrates the major methodological concepts and

ideas developed in the first four chapters by applying them

to a particular biological discipline, plant morphology, in

which Sattler is an expert himself. This chapter ends with a

discussion about the value of comparative morphology in

relation to causal analysis and reductionist approaches in

which the cellular and molecular levels are considered to be

more 'fundamental' than the higher levels of biological

organization. This discussion is at the same time an intro-

duction to the second part of the book with chapters about

'Causality, determinism and free will', 'teleology',

123

'evolution and change' and 'What is life'. He defends a

conception of 'network causality' as more adequate to biology

than linear conceptions of causality.

Concluding this review I would like to say that Sattler's

book is in my opinion certainly an enrichment of the existing

literature about biophilosophy. It is interesting, well-

written, with excellent summaries at the end of each chapter,

a large list of references and a detailed subject index.

Henk Verhoog

Institute of Theoretical Biology

University of Leiden

G.M.N. Verschuuren, Investigating the £i/e sciences. An

introduction to tha phi£osophg of science.- Oxford,

Pergamon Press, 1986. £ 20.95, ISBN 0320317

The field of the life sciences is becoming more and more

popular among philosophers of science. A necessary condition

of becoming a good philosopher of biology is that one must

know enough of both philosophy and biology. It is not a

sufficient condition of course. Verschuuren has a background

in both biology and philosophy and the bookunder review is

his first larger publication in the field of the philosophy

of biology. It is the outcome of a series of lectures given

at Boston College as a visiting professor. I think that the

author has written more than an introduction to the philo-

sophy of the life sciences, understandable to 'both graduates

and undergraduates'. At several places Verschuuren presents

interesting and original comments on rather difficult and

controversial issues such as the relation between determinism

and freedom. His more personal views come to the fore in the

last part of the book in particular. This part IV about the

limits of science deals with reductionism, determinism, the

relation between facts and values and two chapters in which

his 'perspectivistic approach' is summarized. (Chapters 15