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Preformationism. In the history of biology, preformationism (or preformism) is a formerly popular theory that organisms develop from miniature versions of themselves. Instead of assembly from parts, preformationists believed that the form of living things exist, in real terms, prior to their development. [1]
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from matter that does not. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, organisation, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response to stimuli, and reproduction. All life over time eventually reaches a state of ...
The history of botany examines the human effort to understand life on Earth by tracing the historical development of the discipline of botany —that part of natural science dealing with organisms traditionally treated as plants. Rudimentary botanical science began with empirically based plant lore passed from generation to generation in the ...
Hexis ( Ancient Greek: ἕξις) is a relatively stable arrangement or disposition, for example a person's health or knowledge or character. It is an Ancient Greek word, important in the philosophy of Aristotle, and because of this it has become a traditional word of philosophy. It stems from a verb related to possession or "having", and Jacob ...
Habituation. Habituation is a form of non-associative learning in which a non-reinforced response to a stimulus decreases after repeated or prolonged presentations of that stimulus. [1] For example, organisms may habituate to repeated sudden loud noises when they learn these have no consequences.
Aristotle defines the end, purpose, or final "cause" (τέλος, télos) as that for the sake of which a thing is done. Like the form, this is a controversial type of explanation in science; some have argued for its survival in evolutionary biology , [21] while Ernst Mayr denied that it continued to play a role. [22]
Biology is the scientific study of life. [1] [2] [3] It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. [1] [2] [3] For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary information encoded in genes , which can be transmitted to future generations.
Ensoulment. In religion and philosophy, ensoulment is the moment at which a human or other being gains a soul. Some belief systems maintain that a soul is newly created within a developing child and others, especially in religions that believe in reincarnation, that the soul is pre-existing and added at a particular stage of development.