F.W.A.
Korsten
-
Refiguring
Life
-
Review
EVELYN FOX KELLER Refiguring Life: Metaphors of Twentieth-Century Biology, In
barely
fifty
years,
a
stuffy,
slightly
avant-garde
among
the
the
hardest
half
a
the
past,
on
century in
scene
the
doors it
has which
which
leads
comes
to knocks in
course
of
by
large-scale
some how
to
ethical
and
why
question,
another:
are
in
may
the
what
of
miracle
can
Such
rationalizations
projections have pretend
that
(however
marginally)
follow-up.
Thus,
book
-
combination and
(disguised)
able
Fox
to of
Keller's
Life:
Metaphors -
retrospective forward
claim
happened, course
Biology of
scientists
the
Refiguring
Twentieth-Century
disguised
be
Evelyn
the
often has
will
but
afterwards.
future: what
you
rationalized are
they
if
transformation,
be
the
understood
miraculous
the
always
into
does A
seem
middle
of and
the future have in store for us? metamorphosis
the
sweeping
pressing
directly
While
interested
This
the
a
a
registration,
created
makes
it
gradual
and
total
future.
mainly
and
the
a
which
the
determined
metamorphosis
one
of
manipulation.
development problems,
it
was
slow
now
technological
is
discipline
classification
is
this
when the
the
It
from
into
makes
is ago
in
evolution,
sciences.
Certainly
biology
changed
discipline
which
metamorphosis.
has
reactionary
transformation, genetics,
biology
is
to and direct the latest of a
reconstruction projection.
But
although
Fox
does
Keller
not
describes
explain
it,
a
change,
she
invalidates
her
sketch
this
what
were
once
In
the
first
which
projection into the future. Fox
Keller's
change
first
on
powerful
the
she
'Sleeping
Beauty':
peacefully
waiting
handsome
and
annoyingly being
with to
be
from
egg
cell,
the
egg
cell
itself
actively
sperm. is
different
penetration
by
metaphor
of
describes
indeed
unfortunate
acquired
and
fresh
the
that
active,
in
other
and
ideas
which exit
to
Keller
the not
funds,
the
Fox
central
disappeared;
does
is
awaiting
So,
how
the
enable
known
Beauty.
she
scientists
could
now
cell.
Sleeping
that
attention
passively
sperm
functioned
only
fertilization,
magnificently
metaphor
is
from a
not
independent
which
It
promotes
cell.
of
the the
sperm
blocked
possibility
with
the
also
the
fusion
quite
it
cell
by
was
to
its
words,
the
metaphor
of
egg
fertilized
prince,
Beauty
metaphor
beautiful
active
given
the
the
'gendered',
activity
of
metaphors.
deals
Sleeping
chapters
basis
scientific
chapter,
The
two
it
is
explain the
develop
how
possibilities the
renewed
vision. Therefore, all-powerful, the
as
once
second
metaphor
is the
'signal
man'. is
are
again
chapter. the
gene, 1844
metaphors
manikin
the
-
the still of
a
but
not
evident the
little
the
Darwin
beginning
becomes Here,
homunculus, What
strong,
central
man
-in
demon,
or
called
'Being'
line
in
which
the the in Fox
Keller
continues
'demon' or
in
the will
metaphor as
if
and
for
it
the
authoritative
a
progress.
At
the
same
metaphor
stopped
scientists
from
in
gene
do
example,
as of
-
give
orders
a It
is
-
to,
pity
into
the
individuals
or
respond
historical
she
the
to Fox
a
of
a
Molecules,
of
flow
as
Again,
that
and
Nowadays,
messages.
description
a
feedback
defined
molecules.
clear
a
course.
of
other
of
also
system
from,
part
now, are
a
the
with
scientific
message
ideas,
entity
allows
organisms
deeper
coded
view
biological
probe
a
This
They
development.
to
directs
own.
the
gives
This
gene
an its
'soldiers'
1944.
a
were
system.
Keller
that
according
of
Maxwell's
in
cells
about
orders
stations'
of
thinking
for
via
Schroedinger's
implies
intentions
concrete
time,
to
government
development
script,
follows
1870,
'local
cognitive
or
does
not
money,
the
institutions
which
made the metaphor obsolete. However,
Fox
explanation.
Keller In
does
give
particular
the
machine has had unexpected creative had'; it still has. Watson
and
cyborg
in
Force. was up result, defined 'circular
Cricks
thought
American
war
spin-offs. (And not only 'has
the
used
cyber
feedback'.
to
the
of US
a Air
the
computer
speed
up
complex
then
speeded
to
and
feedback
systems.
organisms systems, And
definition
spin-off:
calculations, about
first
document
military
biological as
gave
advisory
Another
military-ballistic
important
Fox Keller reports how, as early as 1950,
an
first
one
can or finally,
As now
as
be
forms our
a of
present
Internet
began
communication American
Ministry
to II,
the
therefore
over,
the
great
many
the
theory
search
to
for
the
particles
was
scale,
and
war
was
tightened, in
a
of
a
opportunities
and
quantum
as
a
to result,
mechanics
concentrated
smallest
and
need
for
elsewhere,
biologists
War
the
left
look
of
translated,
were
physics
World
larger
When
were
methods
this
from
during
a
strings
began
their
that, on
physicists
They
concepts
accelerated.
purse
In
explanation
fundamental
and
the
Keller's
of
into
better
was
apply
Fox
argues
research
organized
job.
is
She
by
Defense.)
transmutation
biology?
nuclear-proof
developed of
what
the
a
system
connection, for
as
particle
was
on
-
the
gene,
DNA
and the system of which it was part. Keller's two
not
more
work
the
shift
from
earlier
reasons:
-
in
biology
discover
tendencies
does
within
make
his
lecture
is
no
physicist,
the
his
before
move What
from is
explanation. for
field
no
was
physics;
and
had
on
life
the
of it. also
genetics biology that
the
and itself.
Fox the
war
physics
Keller
was
reason,
over,
biology
Perhaps
would
It
physicist
to
(1944).
apparent
part
will
drove
Why
started
requesting
of
what
even
there
observer
regrettable
explain
Schroedinger,
biology
towards
particularly not
in
biology
careful
fails
II,
than
necessity
without
the
War
to
any
Moreover,
remains
World
physics
and
manipulation
rationalization
after
without
physics,
to
Fox
retrospective
for
-
a
in there
famous suddenly
step
onto
the
right
away
transform
field
with the
Failing
to
as
in
mysterious
pretensions reach
of is
role
the
of
that
instrumental of
treated
the
even
Fox
war
of
Life
military
so,
she
undesired
is
could
approach
with
the
means
that
the
from
A
an
Secrets
of
Death
more
to
-
-
she
critically,
but
of
how
inherently
contribute
or
book
problem
and
the
institutional earlier
the
second
examines
an
avoided
develops not
only
machine
to,
is
In
metaphors
institutions
attempting
limited.
Keller
And
discipline?
science
this
view.
totally
conclusion
an
machine
point
Secrets
a
criticism
would
even
critical,
moreover,
other
that
for
being
this
problem
not
Such
but,
of
this
concluding
ways.
and
which
of
this,
as
shocking,
biology;
lecture
nature
good
exactly
a
explain
is
of
violent
desirable
human
progress. Both
points
basically,
of
evaluation
possible
in
human
development
will
have
is
self-evident:
agenda determine biology
that
a
social food remains
of
circumstances. is
only
Arendt
defined
perfect,
as
did
of
to
future.
course,
All scientific
that
puzzling said
impossible
to
economic, ready-to-eat All
step. his
then facilities
and
sociologist. in
1944,
nobody
is
first
vision the
Technical
this
in
determine
and
lead.
this
Around
institutional,
the
Schroedinger
are
and
the would
as
here:
implication difficult
new
it
hand, for
The
future
present,
a
where
the
is
the
took
knew
what
it
together
criticism Hannah
in
been'.
of
come
and
retrospect.
'it
lent
criticism
After
lecture
that all, could
have been nonsense, could it not? Refiguring that
Life
the
therefore
although
re-figured,
courage
been
is
to
from like
'it
this'.
go
slightly
paradoxical:
retrospect.
To
having
published
been
afterwards.
In
endlessly modern least matter
biology, to
all of
respect,
the this those
principle,
runs ahead of us into a future. OLIVIER / WYLIE
Fox
a
facts. is
a
who that
somewhere,
new, to
critical, can
being basically
has
this'
paraphrase this
behind
for
makes
is
indeed
Biology like
clear
always,
in
was This
is
also,
possibilities.
modally,
makes
something
there
unknown
What
changed
'it
will
Keller's
have project
but
only
in
Arendt:
only
by
work
be
ethics In
judged is
the
disconcerting cannot the
accept, present
-
trailing case
of
idea,
at
as
a
always translation