The Restless Clock
A History of the Centuries-Long Argument over What Makes Living Things Tick
Jessica Riskin
First annotation on .
6 quotes
Chapter i riskin 9
- Huxley had been invited to Edinburgh by a renegade clergyman, the Reverend James Cranbrook, to inaugurate a new series of “lectures on non-theological topics.” Huxley chose as his non-theological topic, protoplasm or, as he defined it for the uninitiated, “the physical basis of life.” His main point was simple: we ought, he said, to be able to understand the properties of protoplasm, including its quite extraordinary property of being alive, simply in terms of its component parts, without invoking any special something, any force or power called “vitality.”Dec 9 2023 6:23PM
- After all, Huxley pointed out—here’s the joke—water has extraordinary properties too, but we know that it is made of hydrogen and oxygen combined in certain proportions within a range of temperatures, and we do not “assume that something called ‘aquosity’ entered into and took possession of the oxide of hydrogen . . . then guided the aqueous particles to their places.” To be sure, Huxley continued, we do not presently understand just how water’s properties follow from its composition any more than we understand how protoplasm can be alive, yet “we live in the hope and in the faith that . . . we shall by-and-by be able to see our way as clearly from the constituents of water to the properties of water, as we are now able to deduce the operations of a watch from the form of its parts and the manner in which they are put together.”Dec 9 2023 6:23PM
- First, the joke assumes a founding principle of modern science, namely, that a scientific explanation must not attribute will or agency to natural phenomena: no active powers such as “aquosity” that “take possession” of things and “guide” them along their way. This rule also disallows, for example, explaining the falling weight driving a clock by saying that the weight wants to move closer to the center of the earth, or explaining the expansion of steam in a steam engine by saying that the steam intends to move upward toward the sky.Dec 9 2023 6:25PM
- Second, Huxley’s joke plays upon the uncertainties and hesitations involved in extending this principle banning agency to the explanation of living phenomena: in affirming that “vitality” is no more useful or scientific a concept than “aquosity.”Dec 9 2023 9:07PM
- You have probably already noticed that “agency” is a key word in this book. Therefore let me begin by saying what I mean by it. I mean something like consciousness but more basic, more rudimentary, a primitive, prerequisite quality. A thing cannot be conscious without having agency, but it can have agency without being conscious. For example, one might consider a plant’s phototropic capacity to seek sunlight to be a kind of agency, without meaning to ascribe consciousness to the plant. One might see certain electrical phenomena as exhibiting agency, such as the movement of electrons to maintain a conservation of charge.Dec 9 2023 9:08PM
- A thing with agency is a thing whose activity originates inside itself rather than outside. A billiard ball that starts to roll when another billiard ball smacks into it looks passive: its movement appears to originate outside itself. What about a compass needle swinging around to point north? An asparagus fern sending a shoot across the room overnight? One might consider that many things in nature, if not most, exhibit agency: an activity that appears to originate within themselves.Dec 9 2023 9:09PM