Adolf Portmann

This edited volume is the first specialized book in English about the Swiss zoologist and anthropologist Adolf Portmann (1897-1982). It provides a clarification and update of Portmann's theoretical approach to the phenomenon of life, characterized by terms such as inwardness and self-presentation. Portmann's concepts of secondary altriciality and the social uterus have become foundational in philosophical anthropology, providing a benchmark of the difference between humans and animals.

In its content, this book brings together two approaches: historical and philosophical analysis of Portmann's studies in the life sciences and application of Portmann's thought in the fields of biology, anthropology, and biosemiotics. Significant attention is also paid to the methodological implications of his intended reform of biology. Besides contributions from contemporary biologists, philosophers, and historians of science, this volume also includes a translation of an original essayby Portmann and a previously unpublished manuscript from his most remarkable English-speaking interpreter, philosopher Marjorie Grene.

Portmann's conception of life is unique in its focus on the phenomenal appearance of organisms. Confronted with the enormous amount of scientific knowledge being produced today, it is even clearer than it was during Portmann's lifetime that although biologists employ physical and chemical methods, biology itself is not (only) physics and chemistry. These exact methods must be applied according to what has meaning for living beings. If biology seeks to understand organisms as autonomous agents, it needs to take display and the interpretation of appearances as basic characteristics of life.

The topic of this book is significantly relevant to the disciplines of theoretical biology, philosophy, philosophical anthropology, and biosemiotics. The recent epigenetic turn in biology, acknowledging the interconnections between organismal development, morphology and communication, presents an opportunity to revisit Portmann's work and to reconsider and update his primary ideas in the contemporary context.

The first overview and analysis of Adolf Portmann's work in English Offers an alternative approach to anthropology, zoology, and life sciences through the lens of Adolf Portmann's work Examines the full potential of biosemiotics as a developing field for a wider epigenetic movement in biology (e.g. evo-devo, systems biology)

Auteur
Filip JaroS is an assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences, University of Hradec Králové. He spent one year (2017/8) as a postdoc researcher at the Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu. He obtained his PhD in theoretical and evolutionary biology at Charles University in Prague. His main scholarly interests include the biosocial philosophy of Adolf Portmann, human-animal communication and the problem of anthropological difference. Filip JaroS is an Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biosemiotics and coedited a book about animal aesthetics, Krása a zvíre. Studie o vztahu estetických a etických hodnot zvírat [Beauty and the beast: essays on aesthetic and ethical values of animals, in Czech]. Jirí Klouda is an assistant professor at the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague. He is also working on a research project at the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences, University Hradec Králové. His research focuses on Continental philosophy, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of life sciences and topics concerning ancient Greek science, philosophy and literature. Among his most recent publications are "Wilhelm Dilthey: Lived Experience and the Symbolical Productivity of the Body" (In J. Parry - P. Allison, eds., Experiential Learning and Outdoor Education. Traditions of Practice and Philosophical Perspectives, London - New York: Routledge 2020); "Institution of Life in Gehlen and Merleau-Ponty" (In Human Studies, 41, 2018, with J. Halák).

Contenu
Introduction. Part1. Paving a Path to the New Biology: Chapter1. New Fronts of Biological Work.- Chapter2. The Language of Nature Reread.- Part2. Biology, Biosemiotics, Anthropology. Chapter 3. The Researcher and the Teacher.- Chapter4. Novel Ecological Mismatches in the Light of Jakob von Uexküll's and Adolf Portmann's Works.- Chapter5. Revisiting Basal Anthropology: A Developmental Approach to Human Evolution and Sociality.- Chapter6. Portmann's View on Anthropological Difference.- Part3. Philosophical Aspects of Portmann's Work: Chapter7. Portmann, Goethe and Modern Biology: Two and a Half Ways of Looking at Nature.- Chapter 8. Playing Appearances: On Some Aspects of Portmann's Contribution to Philosophical Aesthetics.- Chapter9. Ptolemaic Man and Copernican Man: In Favor of Depth Anthropology.- Chapter 10. The New Morphology Between Biology and Philosophy: The Hermeneutic Dimension of Portmann's Thought.- Part4. Historical Context and Later Reception: Chapter11. The Beauty of Organisms: Biological Aesthetics Between Portmann and Darwin.- Chapter 12. On the Brink of the Expressible: Adolf Portmann Meets Carl Gustav Jung on Eranos Ground.- Chapter 13. The Czech Reception of Portmann.