@article{1439579,
      recid = {1439579},
      author = {Jaroš, Filip. and Klouda, Jiří.},
      title = {Adolf Portmann : a thinker of self-expressive life /},
      pages = {1 online resource (x, 273 pages)},
      abstract = {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 Portmanns theoretical approach to the phenomenon  of life, characterized by terms such as inwardness and  self-presentation. Portmanns 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 Portmanns studies in the life  sciences and application of Portmanns 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and historians  of science, this volume also includes a translation of an  original essay by Portmann and a previously unpublished  manuscript from his most remarkable English-speaking  interpreter, philosopher Marjorie Grene. Portmanns  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 Portmanns 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  Portmanns work and to reconsider and update his primary  ideas in the contemporary context.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1439579},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67810-4},
}