Essays In Philosophical Zoology By Adolf Portmann: The Living Form And The Seeing Eye

156 Pages·2019·5.36 MB·English

by  Adolf Portmann

[P
M g « CO) [FŮ DTTD s i on DD
¥to(s OtiDlmgj F ® « ©traía] îto® SæsOtray Ey®
¥tr®[ra§D©il®d]s mÂto ©tra DtraíiotFptFOůBiiíi® E§§©y toy
iDsOaainál 1 . G n rttar
ESSAYS IN PHILOSOPHICAL
ZOOLOGY BY ADOLF PORTMANN
The Living Form and the Seeing Eye
Translated, with an Interpretive Essay by
Richard B. Carter
Problems in Contemporary Philosophy
Volume 20
The Edwin Mellen Press
Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter
/K
t&î
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ESSAYS IN PHILOSOPHICAL
Portmann, Adolf, 1897-
(Essays. English) ZOOLOGY BY ADOLF PORTMANN
Essays in philosophical zoology by Adolf Portman : the living form
and the seeing eye ; translated, with an interpretive essay by Richard
B. Carter. The Living Form and the Seeing Eye
p. cm. -- (Problems in contemporary philosophy; v. 20)
Translated from German.
ISBN 0-88946-323-9
1. Biology-Philosophy. 2. Portmann, Adolf, 1897- -Philosophy.
I. Carter, Richard B. (Richard Burnett), 1931- . II. Title.
III. Series.
QH331. P5913 1990
574’.01~dc20 90-5672
CIP
This is volume 20 in the continuing series
Problems in Contemporary Philosophy
Volume 20 ISBN 0-88946-323-9
PCP Series ISBN 0-88946-325-5
A CIP catalog record for this book
is available from the British Library.
Copyright © 1990 Richard B. Carter
All rights reserved. For information contact
The Edwin Mellen Press The'Edwin Mellen Press
Box 450 Box 67
Lewiston, New York Queenston, Ontario
USA 14092 CANADA LOS 1L0
The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd.
Lampeter, Dyfed, Wales
UNITED KINGDOM SA48 7DY
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
Preface...................................................................................................................i
Acknowledgements............................................................................................v
Translator’s Introduction...............................................................................vii
Part I
The Living Being as an Other-Inclusive Self..........................................1
Chapter I
The Orientation and World-Relation of Animals:
New Results of Biological Research......................................3
Chapter II
The Living Thing as a Pre-Arranged Relationship 21
Part II
The Expanded Science of Living Beings...............................................45
Chapter III
Problem of Living Things.......................................................47
Chapter IV
Contemporary Biological Research.....................................79
Part III
Peculiarities of Human Evolution..........................................................95
Chapter V
The Path Leading to Words:
Levels of Living Communication..........................................97
Chapter VI
Human Beings in the Perspective of the
Theory of Evolution..............................................................125
Part IV
The Living Form-Construct...................................................................145
Chapter VII
What Does the Living Form Mean to Us?........................147
Chapter VIII
Goethe and the Concept of Metamorphosis.....................161
Appendix IV
J. W. Goethe’s
Versuch Die Metamorphose Der Pflanzen Zu Erklären PREFACE
(An Attempt to Explain the Metamorphosis of Plants)
Introduction to the Translation.......................................................179
REVERENCE IN THE PRESENCE OF LIVING THINGS
Translation by Agnes Arber............................................................207
Translator’s Essay.............................................................................257
On the Death of Adolf Portmann
Index................................................................................................................277
In losing Adolf Portmann, formerly the Professor of Zoology at Basel
University, the world doubtlessly lost one of the greatest and, at the same
time, one of the most controversial biologists of our time. And controversial
he was! For, he accepted the presently popular thesis of evolutionary theory
only with definite reservations. He utterly rejected the extreme version of
reductionism which teaches that all phenomena involving living things cm be
reduced finally to physics and chemistry. These living phenoi na
continuously presented Portmann with "the familiar mystery of living things,"
and he found this familiar mystery at every turn. Indeed, that is the title of
the detailed Portmann biography which the Max-Plane Institute biologist,
Joachim lilies, gave to his book concerning Adolf Portmann’s life and work.
(It is a tragic coincidence that lilies died a few weeks before Portmann.
But Portmann went further than merely to reject reductionism; he
also rejected the modern theory according to which all developed living
beings are the coincidental shells - so to speak, the litter — of their selfish
genes. Precisely, that "total visual picture," or "gestalt" of the organism had
captivated Portmann during his whole life, and he devoted his most widely
known book to the question of the animal’s gestalt. He confessed in the
Foreword to that book, (Die Tiergestalt), that he who had originally wanted to
be an artist had written the book out of the joy he had taken in his
A further stage for him to express his wide-reaching ideas was offered
observations of the total visual picture of animals. He did not carry on his him by the Eranos Group, that "feast of souls" (lilies), which he directed for
researches only with the eyes of the stone cold sober zoologist, but also, and decades. Furthermore, returning to his teaching, over the years he invited his
at the same time, with the eyes of an artist, with uncompromising intensity students to his vacation spots - at Mittlemeer, Villefranche, and especially at
and with deep reverence for the familiar mystery of life. "For only he who his beloved Banyuls where he had met his adored wife.
knows the immediately and easily accessible things also suspects the extent of For many students, these times at the sea-side provided unforgettable
the hidden things." Such beliefs, and his concept of "inwardness" led to his and glorious experiences. This also was the case for the short tea breaks at
expulsion "from the club made up of the ruling caste of science," (lilies). He the tradition-rich Institute of Biology at Rheinsprung in Basel. Prominent
was also looked upon as a renegade because he held that mutation and guests often took part in these teas, guests with whom the old students and
selection could not be the sole design engineers of species-modification. In teaching staff could establish respectful first contacts. I myself remember
spite of this, he received a great many national and international honors. several of these meetings which included men such as Witschi, Goldschmit,
Portmann recognized absolutely no dogmas -- either biological, Buytendijk, Uexkill, Spemann, Koehler, and others.
religious, or political. He himself built his own world view on the foundation After about a 25 year interruption, I called upon Portmann who was
of a profound comprehension and awareness of form which is concerned with then over 80 years old. I had been asked to visit by lilies who wanted to talk
the world of marine animals and with that in it which is so often lacking with me personally at Neubad in the suburbs of Basel. Portmann came to the
today because the consideration of complete animals has been pushed into point at once - to his point, of course: He had decided to complete a
the background through the analysis of the individual cells and cel 1-parts. manuscript for a book about birds, one which he had discussed with
The division between research and teaching posed no problem in publishers much earlier. Leafing through the work and playing with his
Portmann’s case. He performed both passionately. His lectures, courses, delightful labrador, he proclaimed with emphasis, "Archeopterix is simply not
and reports were lively and exciting and he often relaxed their tension a missing link; it was, even at that time, a true bird. We lack any trace of a
through humor - as I know from personal experience which began in my first sure proof for a transition from reptiles’ scales to birds’ feathers." Portmann
semester and extended to the last - and even beyond to my lectureship and was an evolutionist of a peculiar stamp; his new ideas were important and
on to my assistantship. Our friendship thus developed over a 25 year period. often the work of genius. His ideas will occupy future generations and they
Portmann’s Saturday lectures finally became such a legendary event will give grounds for the revision of many of today’s doctrines.
that they had to be located in a very large lecture hall outside the Zoological Heini Hediger
Institute. In this somewhat extra-territorial space, Portmann dealt with July 3/4, 1982
themes which had hitherto been more or less peripheral - as, for example,
with peculiar aspects of rabies with its contradictory symptoms of thirst and
fear of water or hydrophobia, themes which permitted something of the evil
of nature to glimmer through to our vision. At other times, he broke open
the walls surrounding zoology and dealt with issues which were highly
exciting for physicians, anthropologists, psychologists, philosophers and even
for theologians. One only need mention his discovery of that extra-uterine
"early year" which located humans as secondary nestsquatters in his system of
the "phylogeny of ontogeny."
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I must first acknowledge my debt to The American Enterprise
Institute for Public Policy both for their award of an National Endowment
for the Arts grant to enable me to begin the work of polishing these
translations, and for providing me with an office and secretarial help during
the period of October 1980-April 1981. The directors of AEI saw that
Portmann’s work had direct bearing on public policy issues, an insight which,
alas, all too few American public policy institutes realize.
Next, I must acknowledge my great debt to the Earhart Foundation
for several grants since 1981. Their generosity was crucial in providing me
with the time to finish the work of refining the rough translations. I would
especially like to express my gratitude to Dr. Anthony Sullivan, the Secretary
of the Earhart Foundation. Dr. Sullivan went far beyond his required duties
in helping me in countless ways, and I am deeply grateful to him.
Again, Mrs. Eric New of Bar Harbor, Maine and Basel, Switzerland,
has been a generous and critically important friend to me over the last 15
years. Without her prompt help in matters as different as providing me with
her wonderful food and wines while I spoke with Portmann in Bar Harbor,
and checking out the copyrights of the articles, I would not be presently
prepared to publish the period when these translations were being worked
on, Mrs. New was a co-worker.
Again, I owe a special debt of gratitude to Prof. Frans Verdoorn, the
editor of Chronica Botanica, who graciously gave me the copyright to Vol.
10, Number 2, pages 63-126, containing Agnes Arber’s wonderful essay on
and translation of 1790 Goethe’s work on the metamorphosis of plants which
I have included among the present translations.
Finally, I would like to thank Ms Lisa D. Pace who, working with me
during the Summer of 1988, acted most ably as my typist, proof-reader and
general factotum. Her never-endingly cheerful and discerning precision
made a difficult and trying stage of work much more enjoyable than it would
otherwise have been.
Baltimore, Maryland
October, 1989
TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTION
Translating Adolf Portmanns’ writing is an undertaking filled both
with pleasure and a certain kind of vexation. Because he is brilliant stylist, it
is always a delight to follow his subtle address to vastly complex problems; by
the same token, however, it is extremely difficult to catch that very subtlety in
translation-and this quite apart form the usual difficulty in translating from
German to English.
In all this, I have been most fortunate. During the last three su timers
of his life - 1980, 1981 & 1982 --1 had the great pleasure of spending several
days with him in Bass Harbor, Maine, after I had completed the rough drafts
of these translations. During those visits I had the chance to discuss
difficulties and his own preferred address to them, and this encouraged me
greatly in a number of places where I was least comfortable as a scholar of
Descartes addressing concepts which taxed the 82 year old zoologist,
Portmann. (As the enclosed letters from Portmann to me indicate, we both
agreed on the importance of my Descartes studies for my work with him and
for my interpretation of his writing both in my translations and in my
interpretive essay with which I end this book.) With a fine, and, in my own
experience, altogether unique generosity, Portmann patiently illustrated
point after point which was obscure to me, and never, even once, made me
feel uncomfortable in facing the wide chasm separating his life-long study
and mine.
On Saturday, July 3, of 1982, I received notice of Portmann’s death
from my friend, Yves-Pierre Simonin, First Minister of the Embassy of
Switzerland in Washington, D.C. At the time that morning’s distressing mail
arrived, I was preparing for a Monday class in which we were going to leave
Darwin’s The Origin of Species and begin to read some of my (then) rough
translations of Portmann’s essays. The news of his death renewed my ZOOLOGISCHES INSTITUT
4051 BASEL,
determination to polish these translations for a wide reading public and so I DER
Reinsprung 9
have given all the time I could to accomplish this task -- no little one, since UNIVERSITAET BASEL
May 13,1974
professional translators find Portmann’s work so difficult that at least one of
them, to my personal knowledge, refused to undertake the task: He said he
Dear Sir:
could not make a living doing such painstaking work! My own sense of my
effort is that, although I am sure I have made mistakes which no professional Dr. Richard B. Carter and I have been in contact for several years,
translator would be likely to make, I have worked with and thought about beginning with a correspondence concerning biological and anthropological
Portmann’s work as no professional translator could possibly afford to do. problems and leading to his stay here in Basel from July, 1973 to June, 1974.
Also, I have worked with him as a colleague at Basel, and I think that, though During this period, we have worked together intensively and he has
these translations might not be perfect, the flow of ideas and their stress are progressed yet further in his understanding of the biological viewpoint of my
quite adequate. I am persuaded that Portmann would approve of this effort. own work of the last decade.
In closing I would like to say that this work is my attempt to repay my Professor Carter’s interest concerns the synthesis and philosophical
great debt to Portmann. He was always a fine and generous friend to me analysis of biological theory. His own field, the explanation and clarification
over the all-too short time we knew one another, a period covering somewhat of the work of Descartes, has led to an enlargement of my own perspective,
over 13 years. When I first began to work with him in Basel in 1973,1 was an and constitutes what I judge to be an important contribution to a deeper
unknown from an unknown college in New England. He gave me his philosophical penetration of the current problems of biology.
attention and time for a year, with no real grounds for hope of any I would be pleased to supplement this letter with any further details
recompense. The longer I read his books and articles, the more I wonder at requested of me,....
Sincerely yours,
his enormous gifts and at his great learning. To have sat and talked with him
at Basel and to have walked the autumn woods with him in Maine, are surely Prof. Dr. Adolf Portmann
prize events in my philosophic life. This book of translations represents my
attempt to recognize my debt to the scholar I judge to be the deepest and
most vivid man I have ever met, a man who by right belongs in the company
of the very best men who have ever written a book.
PARTI
THE LIVING BEING AS AN OTHER-INCLUSIVE SELF
Introduction
In "The Living Thing as a Pre-arranged Relationship," Portmann
discusses the implications of the evolution of opaque surfaces in living forms,
and tells us that:
"The opaque surface has a unique value as a display for something
visually apparent. Whether this appearance is actually seen, that is, whether
it appears to the eyes of higher organisms, is perhaps beside the point in this
context; we are not yet within the realm of ‘visual’ structures which are, it is
generally assumed, meant to camouflage the organism or make it strikingly
noticeable. The surface display is a part of the presentation of the self of a
living being. To be sure, the perceiving eye plays no role in the life-realm in
which patterns and designs first arise from these newly constructed forms;
but, in that same life-realm the possibility of perceived beings already exists
-- and that potentiality leads to the further promise of an enrichment of living
relationships which grows out of the existence of those patterns and designs
which uniquely characterize distinct individuals."
In this section on the living being as an other-inclusive self, Portmann
examines the way living things relate to the world around them by means of
their forms and patterns. He also discusses in what way the patterned,
shaped, opaque surface, on the outside, mediates between what he terms as
"the inwardness of the living thing" — which is "a non-dimensional reality
which is spatially located neither in a spacial inside nor in a center" — and
that world given to it because it is the kind of individual it is.
In short, this section introduces us to Portmann’s thought concerning
the "vital" importance of the individual living being’s outward shape in
relating it to its world.