Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
7
Biology's Blind Spot
S
UMMARY
. Heredity and generation have always been dominated
by two main ideas. In the Hippocratic conception, the organ-
ism reproduces itself in its totality. Particles are released by
each of its parts and are rearranged into a new organism, dur-
ing ontogenesis, by a property of spontaneous organisation, as
in holism. This theory, initially put forward by Hippocrates,
implies that acquired characteristics are inherited. It survived
until the 19th century in various more or less elaborate forms,
the last in line being Darwin's. Aristotle criticised Hippocrates'
theory because as far as he was concerned, matter would be
incapable of organising itself. According to the Aristotelian
conception, the organism does not reproduce itself. It is an
actualisation of its Form, which also corresponds to its immortal
essence. This notion reappeared at the end of the 19th century
with genetics. The information that this theory advances as a
key concept in its modern version is an update of the
Aristotelian Form. The contradiction in genetic determinism
was already present from the beginning of genetics, even before
molecular biology arrived on the scene. As Morgan explained,
it is impossible to establish specific relationships between genes
and phenotypic characteristics. Despite this fact, the genetic the-
ory has been staunchly maintained throughout the 20th century,
its persistence being explained by extra-scientific reasons, its
essentialism guaranteeing humankind its identity and privileged
place in nature. Because it is intrinsically a probabilistic process
subject to natural selection, ontophylogenesis resorts neither to
the essentialism of genetics nor to a Hippocratic type of concept.
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