Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In recent decades, numerous authors have emphasized the significance of metaphor at both the cognitive and scientific levels. In this line of thought, this paper conducts a historical and philosophical analysis of the metaphor of the division of labor in the theories of Henri Milne-Edwards and Herbert Spencer. While the metaphorical relations between biology and the social sciences have sparked philosophical and historiographical interest, the focus has generally been the metaphorical transfer of biological concepts to social and economic-political thought. However, this paper claims that the influence was reciprocal, exploring how a concept intrinsic to political economics (the division of labor) became a prolific metaphor throughout the 19th century for the biological sciences. Unlike previous investigations that mainly assessed how classical and liberal economics influenced Darwinian theory, this paper discusses how the division of labor, as a political-economic concept, played a significant role in nineteenth-century life sciences.
Source: Tópicos Revista de Filosofía
Author: Daniel Labrador-Montero
Institution: Universidad de Salamanca
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4413514320