Table Of ContentmenB yh maveet incuowlo uusnlyc oovbesreerdv inengo tuhge htr aclcueess l etfto bcyre laivtein ag bthrionagds sutprookne t hpea ienatritnhg, A
n
of the story of life. From a single seed found in the sea, the watery blanket The Tree of Life Within Us
t
ó
of the planet, when the earth was still young, life has grown into a broad, n
majestic tree, with innumerable branches covering the oceans and the conti- B
o
nents, even reaching to the sky. Men represent one of these branches, which u
grew increasingly distant from other forms of life as one age succeeded to s
q
Origin and Evoltion of Life,
another, but the signs of the successive branching of the tree can still be u
e
discerned as we contemplate the bodies of our distant cousins. The apes of t
ittfiossghhwouniee nried mTh sfi,kto tihnr mdttesiohhst eep w retsp oara elsaerieuemlssedsgdte gl,aha n ioeglvn tlo fi i dvor nbulo iffigtornfdh e eolwgeera k uen kiht ndentfieisdmc str tih.roso l utB nwt thnuriehsceehns eaop oi tlbffnreo lleymdgeaos rin leetnesighnnvr gtugortgo soteal h uunutgahetsegcni i eoaht onr e n fvokeox aitef upshar ioorlybeoo uf ofinsr brlueca ii ofltiotkdeei flhoi ,nsono nim,tgu sdio syro afrt,au nf s cst bt l oh tuomuaouers t aerfse fiod p.ysbstc iesh lsuacoer nisteeoe hc godsiaean,nl tsrib tntdilotaheei srihne,sse igufp,ds r ar h otoenohimlrlndye-- T aPnhdil oMsionpdhfyu lonfe Nsas toufr teh,e Human Body
h
osophical and spiritual implications of our evolution, its significance for our e
understanding of our own nature. The tree of life is here observed, from its T
r
roots to its trunk and the tip of its branches, but it also shows how large parts e
e
of the tree can be observed within our own bodies, as our flesh bears the o
traces left by numerous steps of our evolution. The tree of life is not only to f L
be found around us but also within ourselves, and the reader will here be in- i
f
e
vited to reflect on the link between different milestones of our evolution and W
his experience of his own body, involving both his intellect and his senses, in i
t
the hope of leading him to a transformation of his perception of himself and h
i
n
to a mindfulness of the nature and story of the flesh supporting his being.
U
Evolutionary biology may thus show us the way of a natural philosophy and s
broaden the horizon of our consciousness of what man is.
About the author:
Antón Bousquet is an independent researcher specialized
in the philosophy of language, the philosophy of religion,
and comparative cultural studies. He holds a Master’s de-
gree in Linguistics from the University of Grenoble III in
France and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Inter-
cultural Studies from Fujen Catholic University in Taiwan.
A former teacher of French as a foreign language, he has
worked in different parts of Europe, the Middle-East, and
Asia.
Printed by:
Antón Bousquet
menB yh maveet incuowlo uusnlyc oovbesreerdv inengo tuhge htr aclcueess l etfto bcyre laivtein ag bthrionagds sutprookne t hpea ienatritnhg, A
n
of the story of life. From a single seed found in the sea, the watery blanket The Tree of Life Within Us
t
ó
of the planet, when the earth was still young, life has grown into a broad, n
majestic tree, with innumerable branches covering the oceans and the conti- B
o
nents, even reaching to the sky. Men represent one of these branches, which u
grew increasingly distant from other forms of life as one age succeeded to s
q
Origin and Evoltion of Life,
another, but the signs of the successive branching of the tree can still be u
e
discerned as we contemplate the bodies of our distant cousins. The apes of t
ittfiossghhwouniee nried mTh sfi,kto tihnr mdttesiohhst eep w retsp oara elsaerieuemlssedsgdte gl,aha n ioeglvn tlo fi i dvor nbulo iffigtornfdh e eolwgeera k uen kiht ndentfieisdmc str tih.roso l utB nwt thnuriehsceehns eaop oi tlbffnreo lleymdgeaos rin leetnesighnnvr gtugortgo soteal h uunutgahetsegcni i eoaht onr e n fvokeox aitef upshar ioorlybeoo uf ofinsr brlueca ii ofltiotkdeei flhoi ,nsono nim,tgu sdio syro afrt,au nf s cst bt l oh tuomuaouers t aerfse fiod p.ysbstc iesh lsuacoer nisteeoe hc godsiaean,nl tsrib tntdilotaheei srihne,sse igufp,ds r ar h otoenohimlrlndye-- T aPnhdil oMsionpdhfyu lonfe Nsas toufr teh,e Human Body
h
osophical and spiritual implications of our evolution, its significance for our e
understanding of our own nature. The tree of life is here observed, from its T
r
roots to its trunk and the tip of its branches, but it also shows how large parts e
e
of the tree can be observed within our own bodies, as our flesh bears the o
traces left by numerous steps of our evolution. The tree of life is not only to f L
be found around us but also within ourselves, and the reader will here be in- i
f
e
vited to reflect on the link between different milestones of our evolution and W
his experience of his own body, involving both his intellect and his senses, in i
t
the hope of leading him to a transformation of his perception of himself and h
i
n
to a mindfulness of the nature and story of the flesh supporting his being.
U
Evolutionary biology may thus show us the way of a natural philosophy and s
broaden the horizon of our consciousness of what man is.
About the author:
Antón Bousquet is an independent researcher specialized
in the philosophy of language, the philosophy of religion,
and comparative cultural studies. He holds a Master’s de-
gree in Linguistics from the University of Grenoble III in
France and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Inter-
cultural Studies from Fujen Catholic University in Taiwan.
A former teacher of French as a foreign language, he has
worked in different parts of Europe, the Middle-East, and
Asia.
Printed by:
Antón Bousquet
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The
Tree of Life
Within Us
....Origin and Evolution of Life,
Philosophy of Nature,
and Mindfulness of the Human Body
Antón Bousquet
2022
Copyright © 2022 Antón Bousquet (Antoine Bousquet).
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including informa-
tion storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing
from the publisher.
ISBN: 9798781311767 (Paperback)
Other books by the author:
A (Hi)story of Language and Being in the Bible – An
Interpretation Based on Heidegger and Dürckheim
The Man in the House of Being – A Story of Language
and Being in the Bible
The World of the Gauls – Foundation(s) of a Celtic
Philosophy
Between the Twilights – An Interlinear Translation of
the Syriac Orthodox Breviary
The Sky Beyond the Walls – A Chinese Philosophy of
the Way
Printed by:
koadig.wordpress.com
Contents
Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
I In The Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1 The Cradle of Life: The Water and The Sea . . . . . . . 15
2 Ingredients of Life: Organic Compounds . . . . . . . . . 27
3 The Opening of Life: Self-replicating Molecules . . . . . 45
3.1 The Key of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.2 The Kindling of the Fire of Life: The Great Chain
Reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.3 Quenching of the Fire of Life: Natural Selection . . 59
4 Inside and Outside: the First Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5 The Old and the New: Senescence and Death . . . . . . 87
6 Building a Foundation for Life: Autotrophy . . . . . . . 97
7 Life from Death: Heterotrophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
8 Life inside Life: Endosymbiosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
9 New Sky and New Life: Aerobic Cellular Respiration . . 133
10 Cores and Shell: Eukaryotic cells and Compartmental-
ization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
CONTENTS
11 Life in Motion: Flagellar Motility . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
12 Love and Division: Choanoflagellates and Sexual Repro-
duction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
13 Strength in Numbers: Social cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
14 One with Many: Multi-cellularity and the birth of the
Animal Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
15 Swimming Vessels: Muscles and Complex Life Cycles . . 229
16 Sensing Body: Nerve Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
17 Life with a Direction: Bilaterality, Polarity and Cephal-
ization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
18 From Many to One: Social Animals . . . . . . . . . . . 271
19 Flowing Energy: Blood and Circulation . . . . . . . . . 283
20 Discovering the Seas: Vision and Imaging . . . . . . . . 295
21 The Hard Life: Vertebrates and Mineralization . . . . . 307
22 Between Sea and Land: From Fins to Limbs . . . . . . . 317
II Out Of The Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
1 New Realms for Vertebrate Life: The Land and the Air 331
1.1 The Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
1.2 The Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
2 Life on Land: The Four-legged Creatures . . . . . . . . 345
3 Born on the Dry Land: From Eggs to Live-birth . . . . 357
4 Hardened Creatures: Shields and Spikes . . . . . . . . . 371
5 Fighting Ice and Fire: Warm Blood and Sweat . . . . . 383
6 Coats of Life: Hairs and Fur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
CONTENTS
7 Drink of Life: Breasts and Milk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
8 Life in the Trees: The Early Primates . . . . . . . . . . 419
9 Swinging, Striking, and Rising: Apes . . . . . . . . . . . 433
10 Standing Up: From Ape to Early Man . . . . . . . . . . 447
11 Building with Hands and Words: Man . . . . . . . . . . 461
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
Abbreviations
Ch. Chapter.
M.y.a. Million years ago.
TBA. Translation by the author.
