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Outline of a Mathematical Theory of Human Relations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

N. Rashevsky
N. Rashevsky*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
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Extract

In our previous writings we have outlined a mathematical theory of biological phenomena. In our systematic construction of “mathematical biology,” similar in its aims to mathematical physics, we have started with the fundamental unit,—the living cell. After having established a physico-mathematical theory of the fundamental properties of the cell, we have studied the interaction of several cells. This led us into two different fields. On the one hand we studied such interactions of cells, which determine the form of cellular aggregates, constituting multicellular organisms. On the other hand we studied different types of functional interactions, which determine the reactions of the aggregate as a whole to different environmental changes. While the first field leads us eventually to the theory of organic form, the second brings us to the physico-mathematical theory of behavior.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , October 1935 , pp. 413 - 430
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1935

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References

1 Phil. of Science, 1, 176, 1934.

2 Phil. of Science, 1, 409, 1934.

3 Phil. of Science, 2, 73, 1935.

4 Jl. Gen. Psych., 5, 207 and 368, 1931, also July, 1935.

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10 Jl. of Gen. Psych., 5, 368, 1931.

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V. Volterra. Fonctions des lignes.

12 Cf. P. Sorokin. Sociology of Revolution.

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14 N. Rashevsky. ZS. f. Physik., 53, 102, 1929.