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ISBN: 9780865717992

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The Biology of Wonder

Aliveness, Feeling, and the Metamorphosis of Science

In The Biology of Wonder author Andreas Weber proposes a new approach to the biological sciences that puts the human back in nature. He argues that feelings and emotions, far from being superfluous to the study of organisms, are the very foundation of life. From this basic premise flows the development of a "poetic ecology" which intimately connects our species to everything that surrounds us, showing that subjectivity and imagination are the prerequisites of biological existence.

Contributors

Andreas Weber

Dr. Andreas Weber is a German academic, scholar and writer who holds degrees in Marine Biology and Cultural Studies. He is the author of eight non-fiction books and dozens of magazine features and is highly respected for his work in the fields of popular science and environmental sustainability. Andreas explores new understandings of life-as-meaning or "biopoetics" and "biosemiotics" in science and in the arts, and his work has been translated into several languages and published around the globe.

Chapter Title Contents Contributors Pages Year Price

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 In the introduction, Weber discusses attempts to separate emotions and nature in the science of biology, and how modern researchers are rejecting this earlier paradigm. 14 $1.40
The author discusses his scientific education, and how he felt that something was lacking in the overly mechanistic conception of life in biology. 19 $1.90
In this chapter, the author explores "holistic biology," which considers both bodily and inner experiences as biological phenomena. 34 $3.40
In this chapter, Weber examines how complex natural patterns reveal the interrelated nature of life and the anorganic environment. 18 $1.80
This chapter discusses how emotions are embodied, and how the inward feelings of organisms are accessible through their bodily presence. 20 $2.00
This chapter probes the links between subjective experience, consciousness, and the body. 30 $3.00
In this chapter, the author describes his journey to study the Ethiopian wolf; this story is the basis for Weber’s meditation on the connections between living beings. 21 $2.10
This chapter explores cognition in infants, toddlers, and animals. 30 $3.00
In this chapter, Weber explores natural beauty through birdsong and music 25 $2.50
In this chapter, the author provides a critique of the Darwinian notion of "nature as a survival machine." 32 $3.20
This chapter explores why we must focus on a multiplicity of species to understand the enigma of life. 19 $1.90
This chapter examines the connections between microbial ecosystems in the ocean and human symbiosis with microbes. 20 $2.00
In this chapter, Weber explores metaphorphosis, and the idea that juvenile forms of animals may actually belong to different species than adults. 17 $1.70
This chapter describes the author’s experiences experimenting on living animals, which he terms "crushing the irresistable magic of life." 26 $2.60
In the concluding chapter, Weber proposes a series of biocentric values. 15 $1.50