Adolf Portmann

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Introduction

   • Filip Jaroš, Jiří Klouda

   Pages 1-9

3. Paving a Path to the New Biology

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 11-11

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   2. New Fronts of Biological Work

      • Adolf Portmann

      Pages 13-21

   3. The Language of Nature Reread

      • Marjorie Grene

      Pages 23-42

4. Biology, Biosemiotics, Anthropology

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 43-43

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   2. Adolf Portmann: The Researcher and the Teacher

      • Roger A. Stamm

      Pages 45-70

   3. Novel Ecological Mismatches in the Light of Jakob von Uexküll’s and Adolf Portmann’s Works

      • Riin Magnus

      Pages 71-87

   4. Revisiting Basal Anthropology: A Developmental Approach to Human Evolution and Sociality

      • Andres Kurismaa

      Pages 89-118

   5. Portmann’s View on Anthropological Difference

      • Filip Jaroš

      Pages 119-142

5. Philosophical Aspects of Portmann’s Work

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 143-143

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   2. Portmann, Goethe and Modern Biology: Two and a Half Ways of Looking at Nature

      • Markus Wild

      Pages 145-158

   3. Playing Appearances: On Some Aspects of Portmann’s Contribution to Philosophical Aesthetics

      • Pietro Conte

      Pages 159-175

   4. Ptolemaic Man and Copernican Man: In Favour of “Depth Anthropology”

      • Oreste Tolone

      Pages 177-198

   5. The “New Morphology” Between Biology and Philosophy: The Hermeneutic Dimension of Portmann’s Thought

      • Jiří Klouda

      Pages 199-218

6. Historical Context and Later Reception

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 219-219

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   2. The Beauty of Organisms: Biological Aesthetics Between Darwin and Portmann

      • Karel Stibral

      Pages 221-240

   3. On the Brink of the Expressible: Adolf Portmann Meets Carl Gustav Jung on Eranos Ground

      • Ivana Ryška Vajdová

      Pages 241-256

   4. The Czech Reception of Portmann

      • Stanislav Komárek

      Pages 257-269

7. Back Matter

   Pages 271-273

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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.

• Adolf Portmann
• animal and human forms
• intraspecific patterns and communication
• biosemiotics and biological aesthetics
• epigenetics

• Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences, University of Hradec Králové, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

  Filip Jaroš, Jiří Klouda

Filip Jaroš 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 Jaroš is an Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biosemiotics and coedited a book about animal aesthetics, Krása a zvíře. Studie o vztahu estetických a etických hodnot zvířat [Beauty and the beast: essays on aesthetic and ethical values of animals, in Czech].

Jiří 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). 

Policies and ethics