Home Das Ende der (Natur-)Geschichte?
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Das Ende der (Natur-)Geschichte?

Von der Funktionsform zur Systemform
  • Mathias Gutmann EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: December 9, 2020

Abstract

Evolution seems tobe a perfect example of a historical process: It began with the earliest “living” units, progressed to massive diversity and disparity, and resulted in our recent lifeworld, the subject-matter of the evolutionary biologist. Yet some irritation remains considering the logical grammar of “history”, as it seems to introduce non-functional aspects into evolutionary theory – which is often addressed as contingency in evolutionary biology. But even reducing the “historical” aspect of evolutionary biology to a functional understanding of lifeworld, we have to consider the specific historicity of the epistemic situation of the evolutionary biologist. This paper argues for the relevance of the explication of this peculiar epistemic situation, taking into account the recent systemic transformations of evolutionary theory.

The argument is developed in three steps: first, a revision of the use of temporal expressions in (bio-)sciences, revealing the prevalence of a non-modal understanding of time, which leads to “thin” temporal characterizations of biological processes. Second, based upon biology’s shift toward system paradigms, the formal structure of recent evolutionary approaches is shown to result in a “loss of historicity”. Finally, the consequences for the self-understanding of humans as evolutionary lifeforms are explicated.

This reconstruction of the difference between historical and evolutionary judgment emphasizes the relevance of the modal aspects of temporality, which is demonstrated by considering a significant shift of the underlying temporal frames. Accordingly to human beings as historical entities, the differences between natural history, prehistory and history proper are relocated within the concept of history itself.

Literatur

Aristoteles, De anima, hg. u. übers. v. Seidl, H., Hamburg [an.].Search in Google Scholar

Burkhardt, H. (2016), Aristotle on Memory and Remembering and McTaggart’s A-Time and B-Time Series, in: Gerogiorgakis, S. (Hg.), Time and Tense, München, 117–134.10.2307/j.ctv2nrzj53.6Search in Google Scholar

Carnap, R. (1986), Einführung in die Philosophie der Naturwissenschaften, Frankfurt am Main.Search in Google Scholar

Falkenburg, B., u. Schiemann, G. (2016), Too Many Conceptions of Time? McTaggart’s Views Revisited, in: Gerogiorgakis, S. (Hg.), Time and Tense, München, 353–382.10.2307/j.ctv2nrzj53.13Search in Google Scholar

Fuentes, A. (2016), The extended evolutionary synthesis, ethnography, and the human niche. Toward an integrated anthropology, in: Current Anthropology 57.S13, 13–26.10.1086/685684Search in Google Scholar

Gutmann, M. (2015), Über Funktion, in: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 63.2, 339–357.10.1515/dzph-2015-0018Search in Google Scholar

Gutmann, M. (2017), Leben und Form, Berlin.10.1007/978-3-658-17438-5Search in Google Scholar

Gutmann, M., u. Janich, P. (2002), Methodologische Grundlagen der Biodiversität, in: Janich, P., Gutmann, M., u. Prieß, K. (Hg.), Biodiversität. Wissenschaftliche Grundlagen und gesellschaftliche Relevanz, Berlin u. a., 281–353.10.1007/978-3-642-56739-1_8Search in Google Scholar

Gutmann, M., u. Nick, P. (2019), Modellbildung, in: Nick, P., et al. (Hg.), Modellorganismen, Heidelberg u. Berlin, 199–244.10.1007/978-3-662-54868-4_8Search in Google Scholar

Gutmann, M., u. Syed, T. (2013), De vermis mysteriis. Zoologie, Evolution und das Problem des Außenseiters, in: Schultz, L., et al. (Hg.), Gesellschaft braucht Wissenschaft – Wissenschaft braucht Gesellschaft, Stuttgart, 229–242.Search in Google Scholar

Heidegger, M. (1993), Sein und Zeit, Tübingen.Search in Google Scholar

Janich, P. (1980), Protophysik der Zeit, Frankfurt am Main.Search in Google Scholar

Janich, P. (1988), Zeit, Bewegung, Handlung, in: Rudolph, E. (Hg.), Studien zur Zeitabhandlung des Aristoteles, Stuttgart, 167–192.Search in Google Scholar

Janich, P. (1997), Kleine Philosophie der Naturwissenschaften, München.Search in Google Scholar

Kant, I. (1966), Kritik der reinen Vernunft, Stuttgart.Search in Google Scholar

König, J. (1967), Georg Misch als Philosoph. Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen 7, Göttingen.Search in Google Scholar

Kügler, P. (2019), Zeit und zeitliche Existenz, Berlin.10.3790/978-3-428-55649-6Search in Google Scholar

Laland, K. N., Uller, T., Feldman, M. W., Sterelny, K., Muller, G. B., Moczek, A., Jablonka, E., u. Odling-Smee, J. (2015), The extended evolutionary synthesis: its structure, assumptions and predictions, in: Proceedings of the Royal Society B 282.1813, 20151019.10.1098/rspb.2015.1019Search in Google Scholar

Laubichler, M. D., u. Renn, J. (2015), Extended evolution: a conceptual framework for integrating regulatory networks and niche construction, in: Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution 324.7, 565–577.10.1002/jez.b.22631Search in Google Scholar

Lorenzen, P. (1987), Lehrbuch der konstruktiven Wissenschaftstheorie, Mannheim.Search in Google Scholar

McTaggart, J. E. (1908), The Unreality of Time, in: Mind, New Series 68, 457–474.10.1093/mind/XVII.4.457Search in Google Scholar

Misch, G. (1994), Der Aufbau der Logik auf dem Boden der Philosophie des Lebens, Freiburg i. Br.Search in Google Scholar

Mozersky, M. J. (2015), Time, Language & Ontology, Oxford.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198718161.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Newton, I. (1713), Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Cambridge.Search in Google Scholar

Rödl, S. (2010), Kategorien des Zeitlichen, Frankfurt am Main.Search in Google Scholar

Thompson, M. (2008), Life and action, Cambridge, Mass.10.4159/9780674033962Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2020-12-09
Published in Print: 2020-12-16

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 12.10.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/dzph-2020-0052/html?lang=en
Scroll to top button