A busca das ideias estruturantes da biologia na história do estudo dos seres vivos no século XIX

Abstract

This article aims to identify the structural ideas of Biology from the historical reconstruction of the development of knowledge on living beings of the nineteenth century. This reconstruction has identified that the development of biology came from two different world views: nature seen as a mechanism (Descartes and Newton) and nature as a process in constant change (Hegel). The first supported the experimental practice developed in the laboratories that was concerned with the body and was responsible for most of the theories that formed the Biology. The second supported the activities of naturalists and cared about the population and also provided much of the biological theories. The historical reconstruction concluded that the structural ideas of Biology that stemmed from experimental practices were: cell theory, the theory of internal balance and the laws of inheritance. Of the activities of the naturalists provided the theory of natural selection and ecological theory.