
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


A talk Rupert gave at a symposium on the philosophy of form Cambridge University in May 2022. A long debate about the nature and causes of forms has been going on at least since the time of ancient Greece, and within the sciences has been most hotly contested in relation to the morphogenesis of plants and animals. Since the seventeenth century, mechanists – still the dominant orthodoxy – have tried to explain morphogenesis in terms of material causes present in eggs, whereas vitalists and holistic biologists have suggested explanations in terms of formative forces and, more recently, morphogenetic fields. This debate continues, and could well help to revolutionize not only biology, but also chemistry and physics.
By Rupert Sheldrake4.9
6262 ratings
A talk Rupert gave at a symposium on the philosophy of form Cambridge University in May 2022. A long debate about the nature and causes of forms has been going on at least since the time of ancient Greece, and within the sciences has been most hotly contested in relation to the morphogenesis of plants and animals. Since the seventeenth century, mechanists – still the dominant orthodoxy – have tried to explain morphogenesis in terms of material causes present in eggs, whereas vitalists and holistic biologists have suggested explanations in terms of formative forces and, more recently, morphogenetic fields. This debate continues, and could well help to revolutionize not only biology, but also chemistry and physics.

2,068 Listeners

202 Listeners

1,849 Listeners

634 Listeners

761 Listeners

1,287 Listeners

1,008 Listeners

402 Listeners

18 Listeners

1,644 Listeners

263 Listeners

1,051 Listeners

246 Listeners

136 Listeners

792 Listeners

114 Listeners