Abstract
The Gaia hypothesis is a scientific view of life on Earth that represents one aspect of a new biological world view. In philosophical terms this new world view is more Aristotelian than Platonic. It is predicated on the earthly factual, not the ideal abstract, but there are some metaphysical connotations. The new biological world view, and Gaia as a major part of it, embraces the circular logic of life and engineering systems, shunning the Greek-western heritage of final syllogisms.
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Incidentally, Lovelock is an inventor as well as a scientist. He devised the electron capture device, a sensor for gas chromatographs that detects freon and other halogenated compounds in concentrations of far less than one part per million in the air. Indeed, it was Lovelock’s invention and observations that in large part sparked off ecological worries of ozone depletion, ultraviolet light-induced cancers, and general atmospheric catastrophe.
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© 1997 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
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Sagan, D., Margulis, L. (1997). Gaia and Philosophy. In: Slanted Truths. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2284-2_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2284-2_11
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-94927-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-2284-2
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