VERNADSKY,VLADIMIR, DARWINISM AND GAIA - CRITICAL NOTES IN THE MARGINS OF BIOSPHERE

Authors
Citation
Am. Ghilarov, VERNADSKY,VLADIMIR, DARWINISM AND GAIA - CRITICAL NOTES IN THE MARGINS OF BIOSPHERE, Zurnal obsej biologii, 55(2), 1994, pp. 238-249
Citations number
27
Categorie Soggetti
Biology
Journal title
ISSN journal
00444596
Volume
55
Issue
2
Year of publication
1994
Pages
238 - 249
Database
ISI
SICI code
0044-4596(1994)55:2<238:VDAG-C>2.0.ZU;2-5
Abstract
The works of Vladimir Vernadsky (1863-1945) became actually normative in Russian literature and they are often cited only to confirm one or other point of view, sometimes essentially different. Despite Vernadsk y's claim that he tries to be independent of philosophy, he as every s cientist is not free of some hidden beliefs. Accepting one mode of rea soning, e.g. the line of Goethe and A. Humboldt, he can't admit anothe r, e.g. that emphasizing the meaning of stochasticity. On author's opi nion Vernadsky despite all his respect for Darwin and Wallace consider ed the theory of natural selection simply as general evolutionary theo ry and didn't appreciate the population thinking which is the core of the concept. Vernadsky underestimates he variety of spatial scales in which real organisms are living. The image of Biosphere given by Verna dsky possesses some features of organism s. str., e.g. wholeness, dete rministic development and functional organization. The model of Gaia p roposed by James Lovelock fifty years later in some respects resembles the concept of Vernadsky but certainly there are some differences bec ause of new knowledge accumulated in this period.