Re Figuring Life A Review

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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

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