Rewriting the Book of Nature
Kabbalah and the Metaphors of Contemporary Life Sciences
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12901498 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kocku Von Stuckrad (0000-0002-2718-2639, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 419-442 |
| Publication date | 2009-03-17 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal for the Study of Religion Nature and Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1749-4907 • E-ISSN: 1749-4915 |
| Publisher | Equinox Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1558/jsrnc.v2i4.419 |
| OpenAlex | W4301427732 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, it seems as if biology, genetics, and the ‘life sciences’ are in normative control of cultural discourses regarding nature, the body, and the cosmos. This article addresses religious and esoteric semantics that underlie modern biology. The ‘deciphering’ of the human genetic ‘code’—a metaphor introduced to the ‘life sciences’ by Erwin Schrödinger in 1944—rests on Pythagorean and kabbalistic notions about letters and numbers as the building blocks of the cosmos. The progress of ‘genetic engineering’ and related techniques puts the human being into the position of universal creator of life. The philosophical interest in natura naturans returns in modern science in an unambiguously religious and metaphysical way. Looking at the kabbalistic tradition and its ‘ontologization’ of language and letters reveals the genealogy of conceptual frameworks that are still operative today
Epistemology · Linguistics · Metaphor · Metaphysics · Normative · Theme (computing · Computer Science · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Jewish Identity and Society · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,09 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2015 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |