HSPLS site
Login
My List - 0
Help
Search
My Account
Databases
HI Newspaper
eBooks/Audiobooks
Learning
PC Reservation
Reading Program
Basic
Advanced
Power
History
Search:
Title Browse
Author Browse
Subject Browse
Best Seller Browse
Music Title Browse
Video/DVD Title Browse
Journal/Newspaper Title Browse
Serial Title Browse
Series Browse (includes Bestseller List)
General Keyword
Title Keyword
Author Keyword
Subject Keyword
Name Keyword
Series Keyword
Score Title Browse
Talking Book Title Browse
Awards Note Browse
Bib No.
Barcode
Refine Search
> You're searching:
HAWAII STATE PUBLIC LIBRARY SYSTEM
Item Information
Holdings
Summary
More Content
More by this author
Gibson, Susannah, author.
Subjects
Aristotle -- Influence.
Biology -- Classification -- History -- Popular works.
Natural history -- Classification -- History.
Biology -- History -- 18th century.
Science -- Social aspects -- History -- 18th century.
Science -- History -- 18th century.
Botany -- History.
Zoology -- History.
Mineralogy -- History.
Biology -- Nomenclature -- Popular works.
Browse Catalog
by author:
Gibson, Susannah, author.
by title:
Animal, vegetable, m...
MARC Display
Animal, vegetable, mineral? : how eighteenth-century science disrupted the natural order / Susannah Gibson.
by
Gibson, Susannah, author.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2015.
Subjects
Aristotle -- Influence.
Biology -- Classification -- History -- Popular works.
Natural history -- Classification -- History.
Biology -- History -- 18th century.
Science -- Social aspects -- History -- 18th century.
Science -- History -- 18th century.
Botany -- History.
Zoology -- History.
Mineralogy -- History.
Biology -- Nomenclature -- Popular works.
ISBN:
9780198705130 (hardback) :
0198705131 (hardback)
Description:
xv, 215 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Edition:
First edition.
Contents:
Animal, vegetable, mineral? -- Animal : the problem of the zoophyte -- Vegetable : the creation of new life -- Mineral : living rocks -- The fourth kingdom : perceptive plants -- Epilogue.
Requests:
0
Summary:
Since the time of Aristotle, there had been a clear divide between the three kingdoms of animal, vegetable, and mineral. But by the eighteenth century, biological experiments, and the wide range of new creatures coming to Europe from across the world, challenged these neat divisions. Abraham Trembley found that freshwater polyps grew into complete individuals when cut. This shocking discovery raised deep questions: was it a plant or an animal? And this was not the only conundrum. What of coral? Was it a rock or a living form? Did plants have sexes, like animals? The boundaries appeared to blur. And what did all this say about the nature of life itself? Were animals and plants soul-less, mechanical forms, as Descartes suggested? The debates raging across science played into some of the biggest and most controversial issues of Enlightenment Europe. This book explains how a study of pond slime could cause people to question the existence of the soul; observation of eggs could make a man doubt that God had created the world; how the discovery of the Venus fly-trap was linked to the French Revolution and how interpretations of fossils could change our understanding of the Earth's history. Using rigorous historical research, and a lively and readable style, this book vividly captures the big concerns of eighteenth-century science. And the debates concerning the divisions of life did not end there; they continue to have resonances in modern biology.
Copy/Holding information
Location
Collection
Call No.
Status
Hawaii State Library
Business, Science & Technology
570.12 Gi
Checked In
Add Copy to MyList
Horizon Information Portal 3.25_9884
© 2001-2013
SirsiDynix
All rights reserved.