Overview and Comments on "Oxford Portrait of Science: Pavlov" - Recommended biography of the great Russian scientist famous for his "conditioned reflex" and Pavlov's dog!
Introduced here is "Oxford Portrait of Science by Pavlov," written by Daniel P. Todes and translated by Takafumi Kondo, published by Otsuki Shoten in 2008.
Let's take a quick look at the book.
Pavlov was the first physiologist and the first Russian to win the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Known for his "conditioned reflex" and "Pavlov's dog," this new critical biography presents Pavlov's achievements in an easy-to-understand manner and describes his life, along with the social conditions before and after the Russian Revolution and his relationship with the government.
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Pavlov is famous for the terms "conditioned reflex" and "Pavlov's dog.
Although I knew the word and what it meant, I was astonished to learn that Pavlov was Russian to begin with. He was born in 1849, 28 years younger than Dostoevsky and just 20 years younger than Tolstoy, and he lived in the same Russia as both of them! This also surprised me.
The "conditioned reflex" and "Pavlov's dog" are directly related to modern brain science and neurological research. Therefore, I had assumed that they were more recent or had been studied in the UK or Germany.
I had no idea that was Russia in the 19th century!
At the very time that Dostoevsky and Tolstoy were drawing on psychological and religious writings that had little science in them, Pavlov was working on scientific research...
This was something I could not imagine if I only thought about Russian literature. In this sense, this biography is a valuable work that allowed me to look at Russia at that time from a different angle than usual, that of science.
And this was particularly felt in the following passage from the biography, which describes the accession of Alexander II to the throne in 1855 and Russia's efforts to modernize.
There were no legal political parties in Russia at that time, but instead there were various general magazines, called "thick magazines. These magazines presented a wide variety of political views. The radical restoration magazines suggested (ambiguously and subtly) that Russia should be more like the West and that it did not need a tsar. Conservative journals argued that the tsar should more harshly suppress dangerous ideas in order to preserve Russia's unique traditions and special destiny.
These magazines became the main source of information for the public, where the latest novels (Dostoevsky'sCrime and Punishment."The Russians could read everything from news of the U.S. Civil War to articles on the latest scientific discoveries. Knowing which magazines Russians preferred would have given them an idea of their counterparts' opinions on current events. Conservatives read Mikhail Katkov's Russian Gazette, while radicals subscribed to Nikolai Chernyshevsky's Contemporaries or Dmitri Pissarev's Russian Word.
Old Russia was apparently dying and a new modern Russia was being born. So what would it be like? Discussion circles (kpyжkи in Russian, kpyжok in the singular), people gathered to read new literature and discuss philosophy, politics, literature, and science. It was a wonderful time," recalled one activist of the time. It was a time when everyone wanted to think, read, and study. Dormant thoughts were being awakened and set in motion. The impulse was strong and the task was enormous. There was no concern for the present. The fate of future generations and the fate of Russia were the objects of my contemplation.
Such times of great change have a profound effect on young people. In the past, it seemed natural for many young people (at least those fortunate enough to have a choice) to follow in their parents' footsteps and become landowners, merchants, priests, and the like. However, the situation is no longer so clear-cut. The serfs are gone, what happens to the landowners? What will happen to the church? How would they best participate in the founding of the new Russia? Many young men and women have turned against their family traditions to a very attractive new option - science.
Otsuki Shoten, Daniel P. Todes, translated by Takafumi Kondo, Oxford Portrait of Science by Pavlov, p. 17-18.
Some line breaks have been made.
It was a time when everyone wanted to think, to read, to research. Dormant thoughts were being awakened and set in motion. The impulse was strong and the task was enormous. It was not concerned with the present. The fate of future generations and the fate of Russia were the objects of my contemplation."
I realize that it was against this background that great writers such as Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Turgenev appeared in Russia.
Why are their works so huge and massive? The works that were so penetrating that you would think it was not necessary to think that far were the result of such a special historical background in Russia.
This was the background of the times that stimulated young people not only in literature but also in the world of science. One such person is Pavlov, whose biography is told in this issue.
Our blog has featured the works of the "Oxford Portraits of Science" series, all of which have been interesting and excellent.
But let me say this.
This "Oxford Portrait of Science by Pavlov" is exceptional. It is overwhelmingly complete and of astonishing quality!
Pavlov's scientific life itself is of course very interesting, but the fact that he has so skillfully woven it into the turbulent Russian historical background is nothing short of astonishing.
I have a strong interest in Russian literature, including Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, so there may indeed be some patronage in that area.
But even discounting this, the exceptional nature of this biography is unassailable.
I can't tell you how many times I have read this biography and said, "Wow! I can't tell you how many times my mouth was agape when I read this biography!
It did not just happen because of the amazing things that were said. I was unintentionally awed by the cleverness and depth of this book.
That is how shockingly interesting this biography was.
The "Oxford Portraits of Science" series has been featured on this blog in the past, but this series is truly a classic.
I found this introductory page at the end of the book, and it is exactly right.
Although compact in content, the lives and characteristics of the great men and women, as well as the background of the times, are explained in an easy-to-understand manner. We highly recommend this work.
However, the episode about Pavlov's dogs is quite grim for those of us living in the modern world. We tend to think of Pavlov's dogs as a single dog, but hundreds of dogs were used in the experiments. Although the experiments were conducted with as much care as possible for the time, there are some descriptions that make us want to turn our eyes away.
Without animal testing, there would be no scientific development. That, sadly, remains the case today...
This book will make you think about that as well. I hope that through this book you will learn what kind of dogs Pavlov's dogs were and how they were experimented on.
To repeat one last time, this biography is exceptional!
The first thing that came to mind when I finished reading thisExceptional."This was the word.
It is such a wonderful work. Why not pick up a copy?
The above is a recommended biography of the great Russian scientist, famous for "Oxford Portrait of Science: Pavlov," "Conditioned Reflex" and Pavlov's Dog! That was "Oxford Portrait of Science: Pavlov".
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