Histoire de la notion de vie

but it has also involved a narrowing of the perspective. Few subjects more certainly demand an international perspective than war. To mention only a couple of facts that support this remark, let me remind the reader that: (1) as the aggressive interpretation of Darwinism was often presented as a typical German craze, something more should have been said on Germany at least; (2) there were national differences between the schools of social psychology, as crowds were obviously seen differently in different contexts (and the author himself recognizes that "the politico-cultural context was critical", p. 152). But these are not so much strictures on this very important book as appeals for a sequel to it. The author seems to be the right person to give his creature a companion (but he must find a copy-editor who really cares about the proper spelling of foreign names and words). This is a formidable volume, both physically and intellectually. Its nearly 1,000 pages of closely printed text are unrelieved by illustrations, and the book as a whole has the weight and dimensions of the average house brick. But for the reader who is willing to take on the task of studying a work of this magnitude and density, the rewards are significant. Pichot's approach to the history of theories of life is highly philosophical and would not suit the more sociologically minded historian. But within its chosen framework it presents a sweeping and in places highly original analysis of attempts to answer the question, "What is life?", throughout the period from antiquity to the present. The discussion is organized chronologically, with chapters devoted to major authors, or to groups of authors related in time and outlook. Pichot's epistemological analysis is interspersed with extensive passages taken from these authors, with about a third of the text overall being comprised of these well-chosen illustrative extracts. What we have, then, is not only a sustained argument from Pichot but also a valuable anthology of related primary materials (translated into French where this is not the original language). It is impossible in a brief review to do justice to the complexity of Pichot's argument, but one of his central concerns is to examine historical material in a way that will provide the critical tools needed to assist modern biology in developing its own scientifically adequate concept of the specificity of life. This aim leads Pichot to treat familiar …