Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch
Encyclopedia
Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch (28 October 1867 - 16 April 1941) was a German
biologist
and philosopher from Bad Kreuznach
. He is most noted for his early experimental work in embryology
and for his neo-vitalist
philosophy of entelechy. He is also credited with performing the first cloning of an animal in the 1880s.
. He began to study medicine in 1886 under August Weismann
at the University of Freiburg. In 1887 he attended the University of Jena under Ernst Haeckel
, Oscar Hertwig and Christian Ernst Stahl
. In 1888 he studied physics and chemistry at the University of Munich. He received his doctorate in 1889. He travelled widely on field and study trips and lecture-tours, visiting Plymouth, India, Zurich and Leipzig where, in 1894, he published his Analytische Theorie der organischen Entwicklung or Analytic Theory of Organic Development. His interests encompassed mathematics, philosophy and physics as well as biology. He married Margarete Relfferschneidt: the couple had two children.
an teleological
theory of entelechy.
Under the influence of his teacher Haeckel, Driesch had tested the mechanistic embryological theories of another of Haeckel's students, Wilhelm Roux
. By 1895 Driesch's experiments on the sea urchin
embryo suggested that it was possible to remove large pieces from eggs, shuffle the blastomere
s and interfere in many ways without affecting the resulting embryo. It appeared that any single monad
in the original egg cell was capable of forming any part of the completed embryo. This important refutation of both preformation and the mosaic theory of Wilhelm Roux
was to be subject to much discussion in the ensuing years, and caused friction among Driesch, Roux and Haeckel.
In his work on sea urchins, dividing cells of the embryo after the first cell-division, he expected each cell to develop into the corresponding half of the animal to which it has been destined or preprogrammed, but instead found that each developed into a complete sea urchin. This also happened at the four-cell stage: entire larvae ensued from each of the four cells, albeit smaller than usual. Driesch's findings brought about the adoption of the terms "totipotent" and "pluripotent" cell, referring respectively to a cell that can generate every cell in an organism and one that can generate nearly every cell. Driesch's results were confirmed with greater precision by Hans Spemann
.
, instead proposed that the autonomy of life that he deduced from this persistence of embryological development despite interferences was due to what he called entelechy, a term borrowed from Aristotle
's philosophy to indicate a life force
which he conceived of as psychoid or "mind-like", that is; non-spatial, intensive, and qualitative rather than spatial, extensive, and quantitative.
Driesch was awarded the chair of natural theology at the University of Aberdeen, where he delivered the Gifford Lectures
in 1906 and 1908 on The Science and Philosophy of the Organism - the first comprehensive presentation of his ideas. From 1909, determined to take up a career in academic philosophy, he taught natural philosophy at the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Heidelberg, becoming extraordinary professor there. In the ensuing decade he published a complete system of philosophy in three volumes, including his fundamental Theory of Order (1912) in which he proposed a three-part "doctrine
of order".
In 1919 he was ordinary professor of systematic philosophy at Cologne and in 1921 professor of philosophy at Leipzig, though he was a visiting professor in Nanjing
and Beijing
during 1922-23, and in 1923 he received honorable doctor's degree from National Southeastern University (later renamed National Central University
and Nanjing University
) where he taught for a semester. He taught at the University of Wisconsin (1926-27) and in Buenos Aires (1928). In 1933 he was removed from his Leipzig chair and prematurely placed in emeritus status by the Nazi administration, the first non-Jewish academic to be thus expelled, because of his pacifism
and open hostility to Nazism. He became interested in parapsychology and published on such phenomena as telepathy, clairvoyance, and telekinesis.
.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
biologist
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
and philosopher from Bad Kreuznach
Bad Kreuznach
Bad Kreuznach is the capital of the district of Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is located on the Nahe river, a tributary of the Rhine...
. He is most noted for his early experimental work in embryology
Embryology
Embryology is a science which is about the development of an embryo from the fertilization of the ovum to the fetus stage...
and for his neo-vitalist
Vitalism
Vitalism, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is#a doctrine that the functions of a living organism are due to a vital principle distinct from biochemical reactions...
philosophy of entelechy. He is also credited with performing the first cloning of an animal in the 1880s.
Early years
Driesch was educated at Mountain View CollegeMountain View College
Mountain View College is a community college that is part of the Dallas County Community College District that is located in the Western Park, Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas . The school opened its doors in 1970 and currently features an enrollment of about 10,000 credit students and another 9,000...
. He began to study medicine in 1886 under August Weismann
August Weismann
Friedrich Leopold August Weismann was a German evolutionary biologist. Ernst Mayr ranked him the second most notable evolutionary theorist of the 19th century, after Charles Darwin...
at the University of Freiburg. In 1887 he attended the University of Jena under Ernst Haeckel
Ernst Haeckel
The "European War" became known as "The Great War", and it was not until 1920, in the book "The First World War 1914-1918" by Charles à Court Repington, that the term "First World War" was used as the official name for the conflict.-Research:...
, Oscar Hertwig and Christian Ernst Stahl
Christian Ernst Stahl
Christian Ernst Stahl was a German botanist who was a native of Schiltigheim, Alsace. He studied botany at the University of Strasbourg with Pierre-Marie-Alexis Millardet , and at the University of Halle under Anton de Bary...
. In 1888 he studied physics and chemistry at the University of Munich. He received his doctorate in 1889. He travelled widely on field and study trips and lecture-tours, visiting Plymouth, India, Zurich and Leipzig where, in 1894, he published his Analytische Theorie der organischen Entwicklung or Analytic Theory of Organic Development. His interests encompassed mathematics, philosophy and physics as well as biology. He married Margarete Relfferschneidt: the couple had two children.
Experiments in embryology
From 1891 Driesch worked in Naples at the Marine Biological Station, where until 1900 he continued to experiment and seek a theoretical formulation of his results. He enquired into classical and modern philosophy in his search for an adequate theoretical overview and ended by adopting an AristotleAristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
an teleological
Teleology
A teleology is any philosophical account which holds that final causes exist in nature, meaning that design and purpose analogous to that found in human actions are inherent also in the rest of nature. The word comes from the Greek τέλος, telos; root: τελε-, "end, purpose...
theory of entelechy.
Under the influence of his teacher Haeckel, Driesch had tested the mechanistic embryological theories of another of Haeckel's students, Wilhelm Roux
Wilhelm Roux
Wilhelm Roux was a German zoologist and pioneer of experimental embryology.Roux was born and educated in Jena, Germany where he attended university and studied under Ernst Haeckel. He also attended university in Berlin and Strasbourg and studied under Gustav Schwalbe, Friedrich Daniel von...
. By 1895 Driesch's experiments on the sea urchin
Sea urchin
Sea urchins or urchins are small, spiny, globular animals which, with their close kin, such as sand dollars, constitute the class Echinoidea of the echinoderm phylum. They inhabit all oceans. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from across. Common colors include black and dull...
embryo suggested that it was possible to remove large pieces from eggs, shuffle the blastomere
Blastomere
A blastomere is a type of cell produced by division of the egg after fertilization.- References :* "Blastomere." Stedman's Medical Dictionary, 27th ed. . ISBN 0-683-40007-X...
s and interfere in many ways without affecting the resulting embryo. It appeared that any single monad
Monad
-Philosophy:*Monad a term meaning "unit" used variously by ancient philosophers from the Pythagoreans to Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus to signify a variety of entities from a genus to God....
in the original egg cell was capable of forming any part of the completed embryo. This important refutation of both preformation and the mosaic theory of Wilhelm Roux
Wilhelm Roux
Wilhelm Roux was a German zoologist and pioneer of experimental embryology.Roux was born and educated in Jena, Germany where he attended university and studied under Ernst Haeckel. He also attended university in Berlin and Strasbourg and studied under Gustav Schwalbe, Friedrich Daniel von...
was to be subject to much discussion in the ensuing years, and caused friction among Driesch, Roux and Haeckel.
In his work on sea urchins, dividing cells of the embryo after the first cell-division, he expected each cell to develop into the corresponding half of the animal to which it has been destined or preprogrammed, but instead found that each developed into a complete sea urchin. This also happened at the four-cell stage: entire larvae ensued from each of the four cells, albeit smaller than usual. Driesch's findings brought about the adoption of the terms "totipotent" and "pluripotent" cell, referring respectively to a cell that can generate every cell in an organism and one that can generate nearly every cell. Driesch's results were confirmed with greater precision by Hans Spemann
Hans Spemann
Hans Spemann was a German embryologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1935 for his discovery of the effect now known as embryonic induction, an influence, exercised by various parts of the embryo, that directs the development of groups of cells into particular tissues...
.
The philosophy of entelechy
Driesch, believing that his results compromised contemporary mechanistic theories of ontogenyOntogeny
Ontogeny is the origin and the development of an organism – for example: from the fertilized egg to mature form. It covers in essence, the study of an organism's lifespan...
, instead proposed that the autonomy of life that he deduced from this persistence of embryological development despite interferences was due to what he called entelechy, a term borrowed from Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
's philosophy to indicate a life force
Vitalism
Vitalism, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is#a doctrine that the functions of a living organism are due to a vital principle distinct from biochemical reactions...
which he conceived of as psychoid or "mind-like", that is; non-spatial, intensive, and qualitative rather than spatial, extensive, and quantitative.
Driesch was awarded the chair of natural theology at the University of Aberdeen, where he delivered the Gifford Lectures
Gifford Lectures
The Gifford Lectures were established by the will of Adam Lord Gifford . They were established to "promote and diffuse the study of Natural Theology in the widest sense of the term — in other words, the knowledge of God." The term natural theology as used by Gifford means theology supported...
in 1906 and 1908 on The Science and Philosophy of the Organism - the first comprehensive presentation of his ideas. From 1909, determined to take up a career in academic philosophy, he taught natural philosophy at the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Heidelberg, becoming extraordinary professor there. In the ensuing decade he published a complete system of philosophy in three volumes, including his fundamental Theory of Order (1912) in which he proposed a three-part "doctrine
Doctrine
Doctrine is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system...
of order".
In 1919 he was ordinary professor of systematic philosophy at Cologne and in 1921 professor of philosophy at Leipzig, though he was a visiting professor in Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
and Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
during 1922-23, and in 1923 he received honorable doctor's degree from National Southeastern University (later renamed National Central University
National Central University
National Central University is a national comprehensive university in Taiwan .National Central University was founded in 1915 and originated in 258 CE at Nanjing, China. After NCU in Nanjing was renamed Nanjing University in 1949, NCU was re-established in Taiwan in 1962...
and Nanjing University
Nanjing University
Nanjing University , or Nanking University, is one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher learning in China...
) where he taught for a semester. He taught at the University of Wisconsin (1926-27) and in Buenos Aires (1928). In 1933 he was removed from his Leipzig chair and prematurely placed in emeritus status by the Nazi administration, the first non-Jewish academic to be thus expelled, because of his pacifism
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
and open hostility to Nazism. He became interested in parapsychology and published on such phenomena as telepathy, clairvoyance, and telekinesis.
Parapsychology
Driesch developed a deep interest in Psychical Research and Parapsychology. In 1931, he published a methodology of parapsychological research (in German). 1926/27 he served as the president of the Society for Psychical ResearchSociety for Psychical Research
The Society for Psychical Research is a non-profit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena...
.
See also
- Ernst HaeckelErnst HaeckelThe "European War" became known as "The Great War", and it was not until 1920, in the book "The First World War 1914-1918" by Charles à Court Repington, that the term "First World War" was used as the official name for the conflict.-Research:...
- Wilhelm RouxWilhelm RouxWilhelm Roux was a German zoologist and pioneer of experimental embryology.Roux was born and educated in Jena, Germany where he attended university and studied under Ernst Haeckel. He also attended university in Berlin and Strasbourg and studied under Gustav Schwalbe, Friedrich Daniel von...
- Hans SpemannHans SpemannHans Spemann was a German embryologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1935 for his discovery of the effect now known as embryonic induction, an influence, exercised by various parts of the embryo, that directs the development of groups of cells into particular tissues...
- VitalismVitalismVitalism, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is#a doctrine that the functions of a living organism are due to a vital principle distinct from biochemical reactions...
- Entelechy
- Alexander GurwitschAlexander GurwitschAlexander Gavrilovich Gurwitsch was a Russian and Soviet biologist and medical scientist who originated the morphogenetic field theory and discovered the biophoton...
External links
- Biography and bibliography in the Virtual LaboratoryVirtual LaboratoryThe online project Virtual Laboratory. Essays and Resources on the Experimentalization of Life, 1830-1930, located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, is dedicated to research in the history of the experimentalization of life...
of the Max Planck Institute for the History of ScienceMax Planck Institute for the History of ScienceThe Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin was established in March 1994. Its research is primarily devoted to a theoretically oriented history of science, principally of the natural sciences, but with methodological perspectives drawn from the cognitive sciences and from...