The Restless Clock: A History of the Centuries-Long Argument over What Makes Living Things Tick
Jessica Riskin explores the long history of debate over what makes living things different from machines. Bringing science and intellectual history together, The Restless Clock considers changing ideas about life, mechanism, agency, and explanation across the centuries.
About This Book
The Restless Clock examines a centuries-long argument about what distinguishes living things from machines and mechanisms.
Jessica Riskin follows changing explanations of life, focusing on the tension between mechanical accounts and ideas that emphasize activity, agency, or self-direction.
The book places scientific debates in historical context, showing how understandings of living systems have developed over time.
It offers a wide-ranging history of questions about what makes organisms alive and what it means to explain life scientifically.
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