Setting the Aims in Physiology

Abstract

Questions about the character of a scientific discipline are part of the theory of science and can only be discussed briefly here. Yet they are important, for the way in which physiology currently sees itself is rather cloudy. Successes in biochemistry and molecular biology have significantly reduced the confidence of the physiologist and even, at times, produced a kind of neurosis, leading to the statement that physiology “mostly stands on the periphery of problems”. The following thoughts are intended to analyse constructively the position of modern-day physiology within the discipline of experimental biology. We start from the classical interpretation of physiology found explicitly and implicitly, for example, in prefaces to important physiological textbooks. The subject matter of physiology, so it is said, is the process of life. Therefore, it is the task of physiologists to analyse and explain the mechanisms of life processes.