Overview
- A breakthrough in the scientific understanding of living matter
- Sheds new light on the origin and evolution of life
- Bridges the gap between matter and mind
- Accessible to a broad readership
Part of the book series: The Frontiers Collection (FRONTCOLL)
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book, by an eminent scientist and philosopher, provides strong evidence for the claim that language is a general principle of Nature, rooted exclusively in physical and chemical laws. The author’s radical idea inevitably leads us to view the essence, origin and evolution of life in a completely new light. It shifts the coordinates of our scientific world-view in favor of an overarching concept of language that is able to bridge the gap between matter and mind. At the same time, it removes a blind spot in the Darwinian concept of evolution.
To justify this far-reaching idea, the book takes a long and deep look at our scientific and philosophical thinking, at language as such, at science’s claim to truth, and at its methods, unity, limits and perspectives. These are the cornerstones structuring the book into six thematically self-contained chapters, rounded off by an epilogue that introduces the new topic of Nature’s semantics. The range of issues covered is a testimony to how progress in the life sciences is transforming the whole edifice of science, from physics to biology and beyond. The book is aimed at a broad academic and general readership; it requires no mathematical expertise.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bernd-Olaf Küppers graduated in physics and then moved into molecular biology, in which he conducted research for many years at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen. Thereafter he was professor of natural philosophy at the University of Jena. His main research field is the information-theoretical foundation of the origin and evolution of life. He is author and editor of numerous books, including the monographs “Molecular Theory of Evolution”, “Information and the Origin of Life” and “The Computability of the World”. His distinctions include membership of the German National Academy of Sciences and the Academia Europaea (London).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Language of Living Matter
Book Subtitle: How Molecules Acquire Meaning
Authors: Bernd-Olaf Küppers
Series Title: The Frontiers Collection
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80319-3
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life Sciences, Biomedical and Life Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-80318-6Published: 03 June 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-80321-6Published: 04 June 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-80319-3Published: 01 June 2022
Series ISSN: 1612-3018
Series E-ISSN: 2197-6619
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIX, 511
Number of Illustrations: 4 b/w illustrations, 106 illustrations in colour
Topics: Biochemistry, general, Linguistics, general, Bioinformatics, Evolutionary Biology, Epistemology, Philosophy of Nature