by Ervin Bauer — Theoretical Biology, 1935
Translated from Russian (2025)
Biology is the science of life, or more correctly, of living beings. It is the science of the laws of motion The Russian "движение" (dvizhenie) means both "motion" and "movement" in the broadest philosophical sense, encompassing all forms of change and development in matter. (in the broadest sense of the word) of organized living matter. Given the immense diversity of forms and functions of living organized matter that we find in living beings, it becomes understandable that it was necessary, first of all, to describe and bring order to this diversity of forms and functions, as well as to establish certain regularities "Закономерность" (zakonomernost') is a key term in Russian scientific philosophy, meaning law-like regularity or pattern, stronger than mere regularity but not quite a strict law. within it. Initially, attention was directed mainly to those manifestations of life that could be observed and described under natural conditions (such as reproduction, growth, metamorphosis, w…