Hans Driesch

Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch
Born	28 October 1867 Bad Kreuznach
Died	17 April 1941(1941-04-17)(aged 73) Leipzig
Citizenship	German
Known for	Developmental biology Neo-vitalistphilosophy ofentelechy Lebensphilosophie Equifinality
Scientific career
Fields	Biologyandphilosophy

Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch(28 October 1867 – 17 April 1941) was a GermanbiologistandphilosopherfromBad Kreuznach.He is most noted for his early experimental work inembryologyand for his neo-vitalistphilosophy ofentelechy.He has also been credited with performing the first artificial 'cloning' of an animal in the 1880s, although this claim is dependent on how one defines cloning.

Early years

Driesch was educated at theGelehrtenschule des Johanneums.He began to study medicine in 1886 underAugust Weismannat the University of Freiburg. In 1887 he attended theUniversity of JenaunderErnst Haeckel,Oscar HertwigandChristian 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 hisAnalytische Theorie der organischen EntwicklungorAnalytic Theory of Organic Development.His interests encompassed mathematics, philosophy and physics as well as biology. He married Margarete Relfferschneidt, and the couple had two children.

Experiments in embryology

From 1891 Driesch worked in Naples at theMarine Biological Station,where until 1901 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 overviewand ended by adopting anAristotleanteleologicaltheory ofentelechy.

Under the influence of his teacherHaeckel,Driesch had tested the mechanistic embryological theories of another of Haeckel's students,Wilhelm Roux.Driesch studied sea urchin embryos, and found that when he separated the two cells of the embryo after the first cell-division, each developed into a complete sea urchin. This was contrary to his expectation that each cell would develop into the corresponding half of the animal, a prediction based onWilhelm Roux's earlier work with frog embryos. This also happened at the four-cell stage: entire larvae ensued from each of the four cells, albeit smaller than usual. By 1885 Driesch's experiments on thesea urchinembryo showed that it was even possible to shuffle theblastomeresof the early embryo without affecting the resulting larva.

These findings suggested that any singlecellin the early embryo was capable of forming any part of the developing larva. This seemed to be an important refutation of both earlypreformationideas and the later mosaic theory ofWilhelm Roux,and was to be subject to much discussion in the ensuing years. The conclusion caused friction among Driesch, Roux and Haeckel.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, and the experiments extended, bySven Hörstadiuswho showed that conclusions of equivalence between sea urchin embryonic cells were an over-simplification.

The philosophy of entelechy

Driesch, believing that his results compromised contemporary mechanistic theories ofontogeny,instead proposed that the autonomy of life that he deduced from this persistence of embryological development despite interferences was due to what he calledentelechy,a term borrowed fromAristotle's philosophy to indicate alife forcewhich he conceived of aspsychoidor "mind-like", that is; non-spatial, intensive, and qualitative rather than spatial, extensive, and quantitative.

Driesch was awarded the chair of natural theology at theUniversity of Aberdeen,where he delivered theGifford Lecturesin 1906 and 1908 onThe 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. In the ensuing decade he published a complete system of philosophy in three volumes, including his fundamentalTheory of Order(1912) in which he proposed a three-part "doctrineof 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 inNanjingandBeijingduring 1922-23, and in 1923 he received honorable doctor's degree fromNational Southeastern University(later renamedNational Central UniversityandNanjing 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 hispacifismand open hostility to Nazism. He became interested in parapsychology and published on such phenomena astelepathy,clairvoyance, andtelekinesis.

His concept of entelechy was criticized by the scientific community. BiologistJ. W. Jenkinsonwrote that Driesch was inventing new entities "beyond necessity and the progress of science would be better served by a simpler philosophy."ZoologistHerbert Spencer Jenningscommented that the concept of entelechy "does not help in our understanding of matters in the least."

His vitalist writings were criticized by historianRuth Brandonfor being based on a religious rather than an objective scientific standpoint.

Parapsychology

Driesch developed a deep interest in Psychical Research andParapsychology.In 1931, he published a methodology of parapsychological research (in German) and in 1933 he published a book on the topic titledPsychical Research: The Science of the Super-normal.From 1926 to 1927 he served as the president of theSociety for Psychical Research.

Selected works

In German

• Die Biologie als selbstständige Wissenschaft(1893)
• Die Lokalisation morphogenetischer Vorgänge Ein Beweis vitalistischen Geschehens(1899)
• Analytische Theorie der organischen Entwicklung(1894)
• Der Vitalismus als Geschichte und als Lehre(1905)
• Der Begriff der organischen Form(1919)
• Philosophie des Organischen(4th ed. 1928)

In English

• Driesch, H. (1908).The Science and Philosophy of the Organism: The Gifford Lectures delivered before the University of Aberdeen in the Year 1907 and 1908(2 vols.). London: Adam and Charles Black.[1]Archived2015-04-02 at theWayback Machine2nd ed. London: A. & C. Black, 1929.
• Driesch, H. (1912).The Justification of Vitalism.Cambridge Magazine1 (15): 397.
• Driesch, H. (1914).The Problem of Individuality: A Course of Four Lectures Delivered before the University of London in October 1913.London: Macmillan.
• Driesch, H. (1914).The History and Theory of Vitalism.(C. K. Ogden,trans.) London: Macmillan.
• Driesch, H. (1924). "The Biological Setting of Psychical Phenomena".The Quest15 (July): 433–456.
• Driesch, H. (1925).The Crisis in Psychology.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Driesch, H. (1925).The Possibility of Metaphysics: The Course of Four Lectures Delivered before the University of London in March 1924.London: Faith Press.
• Driesch, H. (1926). "The Present Status of the Philosophy of Nature in Germany". The Monist36 (2): 281–298.
• Driesch, H. (1926). "Psychical Research and Established Science". Presidential address.Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research36(99): 171–186.
• Driesch, H. (1927). "Psychical Research and Philosophy". In:Carl Murchison(ed.),The Case For and Against Psychical Belief.Worcester: Clark University, 163–178.
• Driesch, H. (1933).Psychical Research: The Science of the Super-Normal.(Theodore Besterman,trans.) London: G. Bell & Sons.
• Driesch, H. (1934). "Psychiatry and Mental Health".Ancient Philosophy44: 152. [Book Review]

See also

• Ernst Haeckel
• Wilhelm Roux
• Hans Spemann
• Alexander Gurwitsch

Further reading

• Griffith, O. W. (1915).Theory of Vitalism.The Hibbert Journal13: 438-443.
• Oppenheimer, J M (1970). "Hans Driesch and the theory and practice of embryonic transplantation".Bulletin of the History of Medicine.44(4): 378–82.PMID4921425.
• Petersen, H (1952). "The biologists Hans Driesch and Hans Spemann".Ergebnisse der Anatomie und Entwicklungsgeschichte.34:61–82.PMID12998604.

External links

• Works by or aboutHans Adolf Eduard DrieschatWikisource
• Media related toHans Drieschat Wikimedia Commons
• Works by Hans DrieschatProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about Hans DrieschatInternet Archive
• Biography and bibliographyin theVirtual Laboratoryof theMax Planck Institute for the History of Science
• Newspaper clippings about Hans Drieschin the20th Century Press Archivesof theZBW