Nicholson Daniel J
ESRC Research Centre for Genomics in Society (Egenis), University of Exeter, Byrne House, St. Germans Road, Exeter EX4 4PJ, UK.
Stud Hist Philos Biol Biomed Sci. 2010 Sep;41(3):202-11. doi: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2010.07.009. Epub 2010 Aug 3.
Biological atomism postulates that all life is composed of elementary and indivisible vital units. The activity of a living organism is thus conceived as the result of the activities and interactions of its elementary constituents, each of which individually already exhibits all the attributes proper to life. This paper surveys some of the key episodes in the history of biological atomism, and situates cell theory within this tradition. The atomistic foundations of cell theory are subsequently dissected and discussed, together with the theory's conceptual development and eventual consolidation. This paper then examines the major criticisms that have been waged against cell theory, and argues that these too can be interpreted through the prism of biological atomism as attempts to relocate the true biological atom away from the cell to a level of organization above or below it. Overall, biological atomism provides a useful perspective through which to examine the history and philosophy of cell theory, and it also opens up a new way of thinking about the epistemic decomposition of living organisms that significantly departs from the physicochemical reductionism of mechanistic biology.
生物原子论假定所有生命均由基本且不可分割的生命单元构成。因此，活生物体的活动被视为其基本组成部分的活动及相互作用的结果，其中每个组成部分自身已然展现出生命所特有的所有属性。本文审视了生物原子论历史中的一些关键事件，并将细胞学说置于这一传统之中。随后剖析并讨论了细胞学说的原子论基础，以及该理论的概念发展和最终确立。本文接着考察了针对细胞学说发起的主要批评，并认为这些批评同样可通过生物原子论的视角来解读，即它们是试图将真正的生物原子从细胞转移至其之上或之下的某个组织层次。总体而言，生物原子论为审视细胞学说的历史与哲学提供了一个有益的视角，同时也开辟了一种全新的思考方式，用于探讨生物体的认知分解，这与机械生物学的物理化学还原论显著不同。
