Problems of Life Research

I. Epistemological and Methodological Foundations of Research into Life.- 1. Introduction.- 1.1. Historical Review of Modification in the Concept “Physiology”.- 2. Epistemological Foundations of the Science of Life.- 2.1. The Natural Philosophical or Holistic Theory of Life.- 2.2. The Natural Scientific or Reductionist (Teilinhaltliche) Theory of Life.- 2.3. Limitations of the Two Lines of Thought.- 3. The Scope of the Natural Scientific Theory of Life.- 3.1. Methodological Foundations of Physiology as Natural Science.- 3.2. Natural Laws and Rules.- 3.3. Limits of a Metrical and Mathematical Treatment of the Phenomena of Life.- 3.4. Mathematical Methods.- 3.5. Parameters.- 3.6. Validity of Laws.- 4. Special Attributes of Organisms.- 4.1. Cellular Organization.- 4.2. Chemical Constitution of Organisms.- 4.3. Transformation of Energy.- 4.4. Relations with the Environment.- 4.5. Evolution of Life.- 4.6. The Course of Life.- 4.7. Excitability.- 4.8. Capacity for Regulation.- 4.9. Animation.- 5. The Flow of Energy as the Most Important Principle of Scientific Biology.- 5.1. The Energetics of Closed Physical Systems.- 5.2. The Organism as an Open System.- 5.3. General Properties of Open Systems.- 5.4. Kinetics of Open Systems.- 5.5. The Thermodynamics of Open Systems.- 5.6. Provenance of the Energy for Living Processes.- 6. Summary.- II. Rhythm and Polarity — Physiological Analysis and Phenomenological Interpretation.- 1. Causal Analysis of Periodic Processes.- 1.1. Phases of Rest and Activity in Animals.- 1.2. Phases of Activity and Rest in Man.- 2. A Critical Analysis of a Causal-Analytic Interpretation of Rhythmic Phenomena.- 3. Phenomenological Description of Rhythm and Polarity.- 4. Summary.- III. Bodily Movement and Exercise — Physiological Analysis and Phenomenological Interpretation.- 1. Phenomenological Interpretation of Bodily Movement.- 2. Physiological Analysis of Bodily Movements.- 2.1. The External Movement of the Organism in the Interplay of Muscles and Nervous System.- 2.1.1. The Basic Properties of Muscles.- 2.2. The Role of the Muscle Spindles in the Interplay of Muscles and Nervous System.- 2.3. Physiological and Morphological Changes in the Organism during Physical Exercise.- 2.4. Muscular Adaptation.- 2.5. Adaptation of Heart Muscle.- 2.6. Adaptation of the Blood.- 2.7. Functional Adaptation.- 2.7.1. Circulation.- 2.7.2. Respiration.- 2.7.3. Utilization.- 2.7.4. Autonomic Nervous System.- 3. Exercise as a Therapeutic Measure.- 4. Summary.- IV. Human Language — Physiological Analysis and Phenomenological Interpretation.- 1 Physiological Analysis of the Sound of Speech and of Hearing.- 1.1. The Activity Cycle of Hearing and Speech.- 1.2. The Theory of Centers and Plasticity for the Explanation of Language.- 1.3. Electroencephalographic Results of Excitation of the Cerebral Cortex through Optical and Acoustic Stimuli.- 1.4. Electroencephalographic Observations during Mental Activity.- 2. A Phenomenological View of Language.- 2.1. Soul and Spirit of Language.- 2.2. The Contrast between Linguistic Meanings and Linguistic Concepts.- 2.3. The Difference between Meaning and Conception Words.- 3. Summary.- 4. Postscript.- V. Stereoscopic Vision and Color Discrimination: Their Typological Polarity and Relations to Pictorial Creativeness.- 1. Physiological Methods.- 1.1. Testing Stereoscopic Vision.- 1.2. Testing the Capacity to Discriminate Color.- 2. Psychological Methods.- 2.1. Investigation of Color Selection.- 2.2. The Creativity Test.- 2.3. The Self-Diagnosis Test.- 2.4. The Experimental Material.- 3. Performance Differences in Stereoscopic Vision.- 4. Performance Differences in Color Discrimination.- 5. Typological and Sex Differences in the Kind of Creativity.- 6. Stereoscopic Vision and Color Discrimination in Relation to Kind of Creativity.- 7. The Complementary Behavior of Stereoscopic Visual Capacity and Color Discrimination Ability.- 8. Color Discrimination, Stereoscopic Vision and the Kind of Creativity in Relation to Color Selection.- 9. On the Polarity of Form and Color Perception.- 10. Color Selection as a Polar Phenomenon.- 11. Summary.- VI. Quantitative Thinking in the Life Research.- VII. The Essence of Health and Its Maintenance.- VIII. Bibliography.- IX. Author Index.- X. Subject Index.