[From the History of Science]

Wellred

Core Argument

From the History of Science

This chapter traces the dialectical relationship between production and the development of natural science, arguing that the latter has been determined from its very origins by the practical needs of material life. In antiquity, astronomy arose from the requirements of pastoral and agricultural peoples, necessitating mathematics; mechanics developed from agriculture, irrigation, town-building, handicrafts, navigation, and war, further promoting mathematics. Systematic scientific research was restricted to these three branches, appearing first in the post-classical period with the Alexandrines and Archimedes. Physics and chemistry remained barely separated; botany, zoology, and anatomy were confined to collecting facts; physiology was mere guesswork, the circulation of the blood unknown; and chemistry existed only as alchemy.

After the Middle Ages, science revived with undreamt-of force, again owing to production. Industry after the Crusades provided new mechanical, chemical, and physical facts, along with new instruments for experimentation. Geographical discoveries, made for gain, opened up vast meteorological, zoological, botanical, and physiological material. The printing press appeared. Physics separated from chemistry through Torricelli and Galileo; Boyle made chemistry a science; Harvey founded physiology through the discovery of blood circulation. Zoology and botany remained collecting sciences until Cuvier’s palaeontology, the discovery of the cell, and organic chemistry made comparative morphology and physiology possible. Geology was founded in the late eighteenth century, and anthropology enabled the transition from human morphology and physiology to history.

The first period of modern natural science ended with Newton, mastering mathematics, mechanics, and astronomy but treating nature as static and without historical development. Palaeontology and geology did not exist; organic forms were grouped spatially, not temporally. The decisive breakthroughs came later: Kant and Laplace’s nebular hypothesis; Lyell’s geology; organic chemistry proving chemical laws apply to living bodies; Grove’s mechanical theory of heat; Darwin’s evolution; and comparative anatomy, embryology (Baer), and physical geography (Humboldt). Three discoveries were decisive: the mechanical equivalent of heat proved the unity and convertibility of all energy forms; Schwann and Schleiden established the cell as the unit of all multicellular organisms; Darwin’s theory explained the diversity of organisms from common descent. These advances transformed natural science from an empirical into a theoretical discipline, providing a materialist foundation. The origin of life from inorganic matter remained unsolved, but chemistry’s progress suggested it would eventually prepare protein bodies. Feuerbach, isolated in rural Germany, remained largely untouched by these developments, remaining a materialist on nature but an idealist on human history.