Adolf Portmann: A Thinker of Self-Expressive Life

Acknowledgments
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
	References
Part I: Paving a Path to the New Biology
Chapter 2: New Fronts of Biological Work
Chapter 3: The Language of Nature Reread
	Editorial Note
	References
Part II: Biology, Biosemiotics, Anthropology
Chapter 4: Adolf Portmann: The Researcher and the Teacher
	Researcher and Zoology Teacher
		The Decade of Syntheses
		Introduction to the Comparative Morphology of Vertebrates
		Portmann as Anthropologist
		Animal Forms and Patterns
	Portmann and Theoretical Biology
		Relationship to the World Through Inwardness
		Self-Presentation
	Portmann, an Outstanding Teacher
		Portmann, Public Teacher
		Portmann, Artist and Philosopher
		Portmann, Pioneer of Nature Conservation and Environmental Protection
	Personality, Grandeur and Limits
		The Special Status of Man
		The General Theory of Evolution
		The Postulate of Organismal Biology
	Perspectives
	Appendix
		I. Biographical Data
		II. Selected Bibliography
			Dissertation
			Articles (selected)
			Books (selected, Portmann published around 58 books and booklets)
			Works on Portmann
	References
Chapter 5: Novel Ecological Mismatches in the Light of Jakob von Uexküll’s and Adolf Portmann’s Works
	Introduction
	Adolf Portmann and Jakob von Uexküll: Theoretical Alignments and Influences
	Persistence and Change of Cognitive and Perceptual Schemes in the Works of Portmann and Uexküll
	Human-Induced Rapid Environmental Change and Responses to Novel Cues
	Conclusions
	References
Chapter 6: Revisiting Basal Anthropology: A Developmental Approach to Human Evolution and Sociality
	Introduction
	Theoretical and Historical Background
	Altricial and Precocial Mammals
	Humans – A Secondarily Altricial Species
	Conclusion
	References
Chapter 7: Portmann’s View on Anthropological Difference
	Humans as a Specific Form of Life
	The Reception of Portmann’s Biological Concepts in the International Scientific Community
	Portmann’s Work in the Light of Philosophical Anthropology
	Portmann’s Programme of Basal Anthropology
	Conclusion: Portmann’s Answer to the Problem of Anthropological Difference
	References
Part III: Philosophical Aspects of Portmann’s Work
Chapter 8: Portmann, Goethe and Modern Biology: Two and a Half Ways of Looking at Nature
	Portmann, Goethe and Modern Biology
	Portmann’s Bold Claim: The Autonomy of Self-presentation
	Portmann’s View of Biology
	Kinds of Appearances
	The Case for Unaddressed Authentic Appearances
	Da Capo: Portmann and Goethe
	References
Chapter 9: Playing Appearances: On Some Aspects of Portmann’s Contribution to Philosophical Aesthetics
	The Deepest Is the Surface
	Ostending Form
	Form Does Not Follow Function
	The Play of Appearances
	References
Chapter 10: Ptolemaic Man and Copernican Man: In Favour of “Depth Anthropology”
	Biology and History
	Man and His Doubles
	Primary World and “Ptolemaic” Man: The Aesthetic Function
		The World of the Senses
		Man as a Telluric Event
		The Mediocosmos
		The World of Childhood and Sleep
		The Pyknic and Feminine World
		The Mythical World and Imaginative Activity
		Isomorphism, Supra-Individuality, World of Images
	Secondary World and “Copernican” Man: The Theoretical Function
		Homo Nocturnal, Homo Diurnal
		The World of Rationality
		Rationality, Technique and Coaction
		Excess and Pathology of the Intellect: Portmann and Lorenz
		The Risk of a One-Dimensional Man: Portmann and Morin
	A “Spiritual Revolution”
	Biology and Depth Anthropology
		The Creative
		The Sleep of Reason Produces Demons
	References
Chapter 11: The “New Morphology” Between Biology and Philosophy: The Hermeneutic Dimension of Portmann’s Thought
	Introduction: Portmann’s Theoretical Biology as a Literary Genre
	The Project of the “New Morphology”
	The Inner Tension of the Morphological Project
	Cognition of Living Nature and a Typology of Stances Toward the World
	The Hermeneutic Character of Portmann’s Thought
	The Living Form as a “Critique of Reason”
	References
Part IV: Historical Context and Later Reception
Chapter 12: The Beauty of Organisms: Biological Aesthetics Between Darwin and Portmann
	Introduction
	The Function and Appearance of Living Beings
	Sexual Selection and the Definition of Beauty
	What Is Beauty?
	The Hierarchy of Living Beings and the Opposition of Outside/Inside
	Conclusion
	References
Chapter 13: On the Brink of the Expressible: Adolf Portmann Meets Carl Gustav Jung on Eranos Ground
	Introduction
	The Evolution of Eranos
	The Change of the Guard
	“The Original World Experience”
	Instincts and Archetypes
	Conclusion
	References
Chapter 14: The Czech Reception of Portmann
	The University of Prague as a German University; “Preadaptation” for the Acceptance of Portmann’s Ideas
	Czech Protestants, Jiří Němec, and “Bringing Portmann to Bohemia”
	Zdeněk Neubauer as the Most Eminent Czech Biological Thinker and Cornerstone of Portmannism in The Czech Republic
	Stanislav Komárek and His Students
	References
Index