Rolf Sattler FLS FRSC (born March 8, 1936) is a Canadian plant morphologist, biologist, philosopher, and educator. He is considered one of the most significant contributors to the field of plant morphology and "one of the foremost plant morphologists in the world." His contributions are not only empirical but involved also a revision of the most fundamental concepts, theories, and philosophical assumptions. He published the award-winning ''Organogenesis of Flowers'' (1973) and nearly a hundred scientific papers, mainly on plant morphology. As well he has contributed to many national and international symposia and also organized and chaired symposia at international congresses, edited the proceedings of two of them and published them as books. Besides ''Biophilosophy'' (1986), his philosophical contributions include articles on complementarity (

perspectivism Perspectivism (german: Perspektivismus; also called perspectivalism) is the epistemological principle that perception of and knowledge of something are always bound to the interpretive perspectives of those observing it. While perspectivism reg ...

process philosophy Process philosophy, also ontology of becoming, or processism, is an approach to philosophy that identifies processes, changes, or shifting relationships as the only true elements of the ordinary, everyday real world. In opposition to the classic ...

, the mandala principle, and the convergence of science and spirituality. Additional publications deal with holistic

alternative medicine Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...

and healing ways of thinking such as

fuzzy logic Fuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic in which the truth value of variables may be any real number between 0 and 1. It is employed to handle the concept of partial truth, where the truth value may range between completely true and completely ...

, Yin-Yang thinking (both/and logic), Buddhist and Jain logic.

Life

Sattler was born in

Göppingen Göppingen ( Swabian: ''Geppenge'' or ''Gebbenga'') is a town in southern Germany, part of the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg. It is the capital of the district Göppingen. Göppingen is home to the toy company Märklin, and it is the b ...

, Germany. He studied botany, zoology, chemistry, philosophy and pedagogy in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and received his doctorate, with summa cum laude, in systematic botany from the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

. As a postdoctoral fellow, he spent a year with

Ludwig von Bertalanffy Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy (19 September 1901 – 12 June 1972) was an Austrian biologist known as one of the founders of general systems theory (GST). This is an interdisciplinary practice that describes systems with interacting components, appl ...

, one of the founders of

general systems theory Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structu ...

, at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

in Canada. Subsequently, he worked for another year with Ernest M. Gifford and

G. Ledyard Stebbins George Ledyard Stebbins Jr. (January 6, 1906 – January 19, 2000) was an American botanist and geneticist who is widely regarded as one of the leading evolutionary biologists of the 20th century. Stebbins received his Ph.D. in botany from Har ...

at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

. For 33 years, he was first assistant, then associate, and finally full professor in the departments of botany and biology of

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

in Montreal. He became Emeritus Professor when he retired in 1997. Since retiring he has lived in

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toro ...

. At McGill University he taught botany, biology, the history and philosophy of biology, and biology in relation to the human predicament. As a visiting professor at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

in Germany he taught plant morphology and the philosophy of biology. At

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

, he was consultant in the Summer Institute on the

Philosophy of Biology The philosophy of biology is a subfield of philosophy of science, which deals with epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical issues in the biological and biomedical sciences. Although philosophers of science and philosophers generally have lon ...

. And at

Naropa Institute Naropa University is a private university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa, it is named for the 11th-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda. The university describes itself as ...

he taught a summer course on Modern Biology and Zen. Sattler has lectured at many universities across the globe, including

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and the Universities of California, Paris, Berlin, Bonn, Heidelberg, Zurich, Delhi, Malaya, and Singapore. As well as his research in plant morphology and the philosophy of biology, he has investigated the relation of science and spirituality and is keenly interested in holistic alternative medicine and healing thinking. He is also interested in developing a process language in which the verb, not the noun or pronoun, plays the primary role. In 1995, he gave a talk on science and spirituality in a symposium at the 60th birthday celebrations of the

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Dal ...

. There he discussed the relation between science and spirituality with special reference to life science.

Plant morphology, science and philosophy

Sattler's contributions to plant morphology include the empirical, conceptual, theoretical, and philosophical. Together with his coworkers he has contributed a wealth of empirical data on shoot and leaf development and flower development. His empirical findings led him to revision fundamental concepts of comparative morphology. He emphasized that the concepts of

homology Homology may refer to: Sciences Biology *Homology (biology), any characteristic of biological organisms that is derived from a common ancestor * Sequence homology, biological homology between DNA, RNA, or protein sequences *Homologous chrom ...

and

homeosis In evolutionary developmental biology, homeosis is the transformation of one organ into another, arising from mutation in or misexpression of certain developmentally critical genes, specifically homeotic genes. In animals, these developmental gen ...

(replacement) should also include partial homology, partial homeosis, and quantitative homology. These revisions led him to question the theoretical and philosophical foundations of comparative morphology. In contrast to mainstream morphology, which tends to be categorical, he provided evidence for a continuum morphology. Together with

Bernard Jeune Bernard (''Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It is also a surname. The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''bern'' "bear" and ''hard'' "brav ...

, he demonstrated mathematically a continuum of plant forms that spans not only organ categories such as

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...

stem Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

, and

leaf A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...

, but also different hierarchical levels of

organ systems An organ system is a biological system consisting of a group of organs that work together to perform one or more functions. Each organ has a specialized role in a plant or animal body, and is made up of distinct tissues. Plants Plants have ...

organs In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to act together in a f ...

, and tissues. Rutishauser and Isler regard him as one of the major contemporary proponents of continuum morphology (or Fuzzy Arberian Morphology: FAM). Furthermore, he developed a dynamic morphology or process morphology that supersedes the structure/process dualism inherent in almost all biological research. According to process morphology, structures do not have process(es), they ''are'' process(es). He used principal component analysis and the concept of morphological distance to provide a dynamic approach to structure as process, This approach has placed comparative morphology on a more objective plane The major focus of his philosophical contributions to plant morphology and our understanding of reality has been on

, integral philosophy,

holism Holism () is the idea that various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term "holism" was coined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book ''Holism and Evolution''."holism, n." OED Onl ...

contextualism Contextualism, also known as epistemic contextualism, is a family of views in philosophy which emphasize the ''context'' in which an action, utterance, or expression occurs. Proponents of contextualism argue that, in some important respect, the a ...

, and complementarity. Besides hierarchy (

holarchy A holarchy is a connection between holons, where a ''holon'' is both a part and a whole. The term was coined in Arthur Koestler's 1967 book ''The Ghost in the Machine''. Holarchy is commonly referred to as a form of hierarchy; however, hierarchy, b ...

), he underlines the importance of complementary perspectives such as holism as undivided wholeness,

Yin-Yang Yin and yang ( and ) is a Chinese philosophical concept that describes opposite but interconnected forces. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the cycles of yin and ya ...

, continuum and network views. Besides Aristotelian either/or logic, he emphasizes the importance of

. He explores how either/or logic can lead to conflict and even war, whereas fuzzy logic and Yin-Yang thinking can be healing because they connect what either/or logic has torn apart. Finally, he also emphasizes that beyond all perspectives is the unnamable source, emptiness (in the Buddhist sense), mystery, which is of ultimate importance for healing and total Being. Using a mandala, he presented a synthesis of his scientific, philosophical, and spiritual insights in his open book ‘’Wholeness, Fragmentation, and the Unnamable: Holism, Materialism, and Mysticism – A Mandala’’ (see below in Bibliography). This book also contains two extensive appendices, one on ‘’The Human Condition and its Transcendence’’, and another on ‘’Lessons from the 20th Century for the 21st Century’’.

Awards and honors

Sattler is a Fellow of the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

and a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Canada judges to have "made remarkable contributions in the arts, the humanities and the sciences, as well as in Canadian public life ...

. In 1974 he was awarded the Lawson Medal (the highest award of the Canadian Botanical Association) for his book ''Organogenesis of Flowers''. In 1995 he received an honorary doctorate (D.Sc.) from the Open International University at Colombo, Sri Lanka for his contributions to complementary alternative medicine. A symposium was dedicated to him on the occasion of his retirement.''Plant Morphology – Theory and Practice. A Tribute to Rolf Sattler and his Work'', Symposium of the Botanical Society of America, 1997

Bibliography (selected publications)

* Sattler, R. '
Wholeness, Fragmentation, and the Unnamable: Holism, Materialism, and Mysticism - A Mandala
' * ---- 2021. ''Science and Beyond: Toward Greater Sanity through Science, Philosophy, Art, and Spirituality.'' FriesenPress.'' * ---- 2019. Structural and dynamic approaches to the development and evolution of plant form. In: Fusco, G. (ed) ''Perspectives on Evolutionary and Developmental Biology. Essays for Alessandro Minelli.'' Chapter 6, pp. 57-70

' * ---- 2018. Philosophy of plant morphology. ''Elemente der Naturwissenschaft'' 108: 55-79 (for an expanded version of this article see

'). * ---- 2016. Science and mystery. ''Holistic Science Journal'' 3(1): 49-53. * ---- 2012. Outgrowing Aristotle: How to move beyond the logic of either/or. ''Green Spirit'' 14(2): 18-20 (also available as Healing Thinking through both/and logic, Buddhist and Jain logic

'). * ---- 2008.
Wilber’s AQAL Map and Beyond
' * ---- 2001. Some comments on the morphological, scientific, philosophical and spiritual significance of

Agnes Arber Agnes Robertson Arber FRS (23 February 1879 – 22 March 1960) was a British plant morphologist and anatomist, historian of botany and philosopher of biology. She was born in London but lived most of her life in Cambridge, including the las ...

's life and work. ''Annals of Botany'' 88: 1215-1217

' * ---- 2001. Non-conventional medicines and holism. ''Holistic Science and Human Values'' 5: 1–15. * ---- 1999. Divergence and convergence of sciences and spirituality: life science and spirituality. ''Holistic Science and Human Values'' 4: 41-48 * ---- 1998. On the origin of symmetry, branching and phyllotaxis in land plants. In: R.V. Jean and D. Barabé (eds) Symmetry in Plants. World Scientific, Singapore, pp. 775–793. * Sattler, R. and Rutishauser, R. 1997. The fundamental relevance of plant morphology and morphogenesis to plant research. ''Annals of Botany'' 80: 571-582

' * Sattler, R. 1996. Classical morphology and continuum morphology: opposition and continuum. ''Annals of Botany'' 78: 577-581

' * ---- 1994. Homology, homeosis and process morphology in plants. In: B.K. Hall (ed). ''Homology: The hierarchical basis of comparative biology''. Academic Press, pp. 423–475. * ---- 1992. Process morphology: structural dynamics in development and evolution. ''Canadian Journal of Botany'' 70: 708-714

' * Sattler, R. and Jeune, B. 1992. Multivariate analysis confirms the continuum view of plant form. ''Annals of Botany'' 69: 249–262. * Jeune, B. and Sattler, R. 1992. Multivariate analysis in process morphology. ''Journal of Theoretical Biology'' 156: 147–167. * Sattler, R. 1988. Homeosis in plants (Special Paper). ''American Journal of Botany'' 75: 1606–1617. * ---- 1986. ''Biophilosophy. Analytic and Holistic Perspectives.'' Heidelberg, New York: Springer. * ---- (ed). 1982. ''Axioms and Principles of Plant Construction.'' The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff/Junk (Also published as Vol. 31a of Acta Biotheoretica). * ---- (ed). 1978. ''Theoretical Plant Morphology.'' The Hague: Leiden University Press. * ---- 1974. A new approach to gynoecial morphology. ''Phytomorphology'' 24: 22–34. * ---- 1973. ''Organogenesis of Flowers. A Photographic Text-Atlas.'' Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press.

References

External links

Rolf Sattler's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sattler, Rolf Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada 20th-century Canadian botanists Integral thought Living people 1936 births People from Göppingen 21st-century Canadian botanists