Biology

At Columbia University in 1907, Edmund B. Wilson brought the study of living things into a discussion of scientific method and explanation. This lecture considers the shared problems of physiology, botany and zoology, connecting the structure and function of organisms with their evolutionary history. Wilson describes observation, comparison and experiment as tools for extending knowledge, while drawing a careful distinction between evidence and speculation about the origin of life.

His central concern is whether physical and chemical processes can explain living bodies, or whether biology requires a separate vital force. The discussion becomes concrete through Mendel's principle of heredity and experiments on colour in mice. Predicted combinations are compared with observed results, showing how probability enters biological research. Readers interested in the history of science will find a short account of how a working naturalist weighs competing explanations and tests them against particular cases.