Homunculus

From Free net encyclopedia

For other senses of this word, see homunculus (disambiguation).

Image:HomunculusLarge.png

The concept of a homunculus (Latin for "little man", sometimes spelled "homonculus," plural "homunculi") is often used to illustrate the functioning of a system. In the scientific sense of an unknowable prime actor, it can be viewed as an entity or agent.

The term appears to have been first used by the alchemist Paracelsus. He once claimed that he had created a false human being that he referred to as the homunculus. The creature was to have stood no more than 12 inches tall, and did the work usually associated with a golem. However, after a short time, the homunculus turned on its creator and ran away. The recipe consisted of a bag of bones, sperm, skin fragments and hair from any animal of which the homunculus would be a hybrid. This was to be laid in the ground surrounded by horse manure for forty days, at which point the embryo would form. He gives the following instructions and commentary in De Rerum Natura ("Concerning the Nature of Things"), as translated by A. E. Waite (see The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus the Great. Edited by Arthur Edward Waite. New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, [1894] 1967. Vol. I: 120-194 -- this quote from Vol. I, pgs. 124-125):

But neither must we by any means forget the generation of homunculi. For there is some truth in this thing, although for a long time it was held in a most occult manner and with secrecy, while there was no little doubt and question among some of the old Philosophers, whether it was possible to Nature and Art, that a man should be begotten without the female body and the natural womb. I answer hereto, that this is in no way opposed to Spagyric Art and to Nature, nay, that it is perfectly possible. In order to accomplish it, you must proceed thus. Let the semen of a man putrefy by itself in a sealed cucurbite with the highest putrefaction of the venter equinus(horse's womb) for forty days, or until it begins at last to live, move, and be agitated, which can easily be seen. After this time it will be in some degree like a human being, but, nevertheless, transparent and without body. If now, after this, it be every day nourished and fed cautiously and prudently with the arcanum of human blood, and kept for forty weeks in the perpetual and eternal heat of a venter equinus, it becomes, thenceforth a true and living infant, having all the members of a child that is born from a woman, but much smaller. This we call a homunculus; and it should be afterwards educated with the greatest care and zeal, until it grows up and begins to display intelligence. Now, this is one of the greatest secrets which God has revealed to mortal and fallible man. It is a miracle and marvel of God, an arcanum above all aracana, and deserves to be kept secret until the last times, when there shall be nothing hidden, but all things shall be made manifest. And although up to this time it has not been known to men, it was, nevertheless, known to the wood-sprites and nymphs and giants long ago, because they themselves were sprung from this source; since from such homunculi when the come to manhood are produced giants, pigmies, and other marvellous people, who are the instruments of great things, who get great victories over their enemies, and know all secret and hidden matters. As by Art they acquire their life, by Art acquire their body, flesh, bones and blood, and are born by Art, therefore Art is incorporated in them and born with them, and there is no need for them to learn, but others are compelled to learn from them, since they are sprung from Art and live by it, as a rose or a flower in a garden, and are called the children of the wood- sprites and the nymphs, because in their virtue they are not like men, but like spirits.

There are also variants cited by other alchemists. One such variant involved the use of the mandrake. Popular belief held that this plant grew where semen ejaculated by hanged men (during the last convulsive spasms before death) fell to the ground, and its roots vaguely resemble a human form to varying degrees. The root was to be picked before dawn on a Friday morning by a black dog, then washed and "fed" with milk and honey and, in some prescriptions, blood, whereupon it would fully develop into a miniature human which would guard and protect its owner. Yet a third method, cited by Dr. David Christianus at the University of Giessen during the 18th century, was to take an egg laid by a black hen, poke a tiny hole through the shell, replace a bean-sized portion of the white with human sperm, seal the opening with virgin parchment, and bury the egg in dung on the first day of the March lunar cycle. A miniature humanoid would emerge from the egg after thirty days, which would help and protect its creator in return for a steady diet of lavender seeds and earthworms.

The term homunculus was later used in the discussion of conception and birth. In 1694, Nicolas Hartsoeker discovered "animalcules" in the sperm of humans and other animals. Some claimed that the sperm was in fact a "little man" (homunculus) that was placed inside a woman for growth into a child; these later became known as the spermists. This is not as silly as it sounds today, and neatly explained many of the mysteries of conception (for instance, why it takes two). However it was later pointed out that if the sperm was a homunculus, identical in all but size to an adult, then the homunculus must have sperm of its own. This led to a reductio ad absurdum, with a chain of homunculi "all the way down".

Today the term is used in a number of ways to describe systems that are thought of as being run by a "little man" inside. For instance, the homunculus continues to be considered as one of the major theories on the origin of consciousness, that there is a part (or process) in the brain whose purpose is to be "you". The homunculus is often invoked in cybernetics as well, for similar reasons.

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The sensory and motor homunculi

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The homunculus is also commonly used to describe the distorted human figure drawn to reflect the relative sensory space our body parts occupy on the cerebral cortex. The lips, hands, feet and sex organs are considerably more sensitive than other parts of the body, so the homunculus has grossly large lips, hands and genitals. Well known in the field of neurology, this is also commonly called 'the little man inside the brain.'

Dr Wilder Penfield used a similar image to depict the body according to the areas of the motor cortex controlling it in voluntary movement. Sometimes thought to be the brain's map of the body, the motor homunculus is really a map of the proportionate association of the cortex with body members. It also reflects kinesthetic proprioception, the body as felt in motion. It plays a central role in phantom limb phenomena and their opposite such as the disappearance of body members from conscious perception with certain types of brain damage. Like the sensory homunculus, the motor homunculus looks distorted. For example the thumb which is used in thousands of complex activities appears much larger than the thigh with its relatively simple movement. The motor homunculus develops over time and differs from one person to the next. The hand in the brain of an infant is different to the hand in the brain of a concert pianist. This kind of difference is open to introspection. You can probably flex and extend the end of your thumb at will. Most people can do this fairly easily, but relatively few can make analogous movements with any of their other fingers. The difference is due to differences in the functional organization of associated areas of the brain.

See Also: Cortical homunculus

Dr. Philip R. Westlake, a cyberneticist and member of Sigma Xi and noted by journals around the world mentioned the term "homonculi" in his 1968 Ph.D. thesis, "Towards a Theory of Brain Functioning: A Detailed Investigation of the Possibilities of Neural Holographic Processes." Dr. Westlake used the term "homonculi" or "inner eye" to discuss the problem of explaning reconstructed images in the brain. Dr. Westlake wrote in a notation, "This terminology may not be to the taste of everyone. It appears to merit some discussion at least because of its historical connections."

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The homunculus argument in philosophy of mind

Template:SectOR A Homunculus argument accounts for a phenomenon in terms of the very phenomenon that it is supposed to explain (Richard Gregory (1987)). Homunculus arguments are always fallacious. In the psychology and philosophy of mind 'homunculus arguments' are extremely useful for detecting where theories of mind fail or are incomplete.

Homunculus arguments are common in the theory of vision. Imagine a person watching a movie. He sees the images as something separate from himself, projected on the screen. How is this done? A simple theory might propose that the light from the screen forms an image on the retinas in the eyes and something in the brain looks at these as if they are the screen. The Homunculus Argument shows this is not a full explanation because all that has been done is to place an entire person, or homunculus, behind the eye who gazes at the retinas. A more sophisticated argument might propose that the images on the retinas are transferred to the visual cortex where it is scanned. Again this cannot be a full explanation because all that has been done is to place a little person in the brain behind the cortex. In the theory of vision the Homunculus Argument invalidates theories that do not explain 'projection', the experience that the viewing point is separate from the things that are seen. (Adapted from Gregory (1987), (1990)).

A homunculus argument should be phrased in such a way that the conclusion is always that if a homunculus is required then the theory is wrong. After all, homunculi do not exist.

Very few people would propose that there actually is a little man in the brain looking at brain activity. However, this proposal has been used as a 'straw man' in theories of mind. Gilbert Ryle (1949) proposed that the human mind is known by its intelligent acts. (see Ryle's Regress). He argued that if there is an inner being inside the brain that could steer its own thoughts then this would lead to an absurd repetitive cycle or 'regress' before a thought could occur:

"According to the legend, whenever an agent does anything intelligently, his act is preceded and steered by another internal act of considering a regulative proposition appropriate to his practical problem."

"... Must we then say that for the [agent's] ... reflections how to act to be intelligent he must first reflect how best to reflect how to act? The endlessness of this implied regress shows that the application of the appropriateness does not entail the occurrence of a process of considering this criterion."

The homunculus argument and the regress argument are often considered to be the same but this is not the case. The homunculus argument says that if there is a need for a 'little man' to complete a theory then the theory is wrong. The regress argument says that an intelligent agent would need to think before it could have a thought.

If the homunculus argument is applied to the problem of the "intelligent agent" a subtly different result from the regress argument occurs. The homunculus argument applied to Ryle's theory would be phrased in terms of whether the mental attribute of 'reflecting upon things internally' can be explained by the theory that 'the mind is intelligent acts' without the appearance of a homunculus. The answer, provided by Ryle's own logic, is that internal reflection would require a homunculus to prevent it from becoming an infinite regress. Therefore with these assumptions the Homunculus Argument does not support the theory that mind is wholly due to intelligent acts.

The example of Ryle's theory demonstrates another aspect of the Homunculus Argument in which it is possible to attribute to the mind various properties such as 'internal reflection' that are not universally accepted and use these contentiously to declare that a theory of mind is invalid.

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Literature and pop culture

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Representations of the homunculus

The idea of the homunculus has proven to be fruitful inspiration. Homunculi can be found in centuries' worth of literature and also in film, animation, video and card games.

  • The Homonculus is a monster in Nethack. In non-graphical versions, it appears as the symbol i (Imps and minor demons). The monster is low level, easy to defeat, and is classified as size tiny. If eaten, it (sometimes) grants the player an intrinsic poison resistance.
  • In the Anime Fullmetal Alchemist, the Homonculi are failed human transmutations that were raised into artificially created human beings. Although they appear normal, they are the representation of the sins of those who attempted the taboos of human alchemy, each bearing a code name taken from the seven deadly sins, Pride, Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath and Envy; each has powers that manipulate the elements in their bodies to carry out their atrocities.
  • In Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, there are several references to a homunculus, particularly detailed in a chapter dealing with druidic rites are performed at a party in the country estate (castle) of a wealthy Rosicrucian. After a series of sensually stimulating occult acts are played out for the small audience, several homunculi appear to be created, but the main character Casaubon can not decide if they are wax or indeed authentic magic.
  • In his source study of Englishwoman Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, Prof. Radu Florescu notes that her father, William Godwin, and her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley were both quite familiar with the lives and works of alchemists like Paracelsus and others. Florescu also suggests that Konrad Dippel, an alchemist born in Castle Frankenstein whom he believes may have been the inspiration for Dr. Frankenstein, was a student of Dr. David Christianus.
  • German horror writer Hanns Heinz Ewers used the mandrake method for creating a homunculus as the inspiration for his 1911 novel Alraune, in which a prostitute is impregnated with semen from a hanged murderer to create a woman devoid of morals or conscience. Several cinematic adaptations of Alraune have been made over the years, the most recent in 1952 with Erich von Stroheim. The 1995 film Species also appears to draw some inspiration from this variation on the homunculus legend.
  • American author David H. Kellner, M.D., wrote two pieces featuring homunculi. One was a short story, "A Twentieth-Century Homunculus," published in Amazing Stories in 1930, which describes the creation of homunculi on an industrial scale by a pair of misogynists. In the other, a novel called The Homunculus, published in 1949 by Prime Press of Philadelphia, retired Colonel Horatio Bumble creates such a being.
  • Also examining the misogynistic tendencies of the creators of homunculi, Swedish novelist Sven Delblanc lampoons both his homunculus' creator and the Cold War industrial-military complexes of the Soviet Union and NATO in his novel The Homunculus: A Magic Tale.
  • The homunculus has also long been a popular theme in film, starting with the six-part 1916 German serial Homunculus.
  • In the classic horror film Bride of Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein's old teacher, Dr. Praetorius, shows him his own creations, a series of miniature humanoids kept in specimen jars, including a bishop, a king, a queen, a ballerina, a mermaid, and a devil. These are clearly intended to be homunculi, based on those creatures described by Emil Besetzny's Sphinx, as translated and presented in Franz Hartmann's Life of Paracelsus.
  • In various works of fantasy and science fiction, the term "homunculus" describes any man-made humans or humanoid creatures that are created via alchemy or magic.
    • Such homunculi are featured in the comedy film The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse.
    • In Fullmetal Alchemist, a popular manga (Japanese graphic novel) and anime, the main protagonist Edward Elric battles supernatural enemies claiming to be homunculi, the products of failed attempts to resurrect humans who have died. The homunculi have the names of the seven deadly sins (Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, Greed, Sloth, and Pride). The idea of failed resurrection is explored more in the quote, "Either because of love, or out of foolish curiosity, human transmutation is attempted... and when these attempts all backfire, a different life is created... a being that has its own body and mind, but no soul... This is how the damned are born."
    • In the Game Boy Advance Video Game Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken the main villain Nergal uses henchmen of humanlike appearance but inhuman disposition and talent created by means of forbidden magic called morphs, whose means of creation resemble that of Homunculi.
    • A homunculus named Roger figures greatly into some of the Hellboy comic books.
    • In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, a wizard can use a spell to make a homunculus.
    • In the Magic: The Gathering card game, two creatures exist with "homunculus" in their name. Both are blue creatures, blue being the color of artificial creation and illusion, among other things.
    • The homunculus appears in both the card game and animated series for Yu-Gi-Oh!. In the card game, there are two creatures, one named "Homunculus The Alchemic Being", and one named "Golden Homunculus". In the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime series, one professor is revealed to be a Homunculus of himself.
    • In the Enix console role-playing game Valkyrie Profile, the alchemist Lezard Valeth experiments with homonculi. Among them are his minion Bellion, and numerous female elven-like forms kept in large glass tubes.
    • In the avant-garde anime Serial Experiments Lain, the main character, a 14-year old-girl named Lain Iwakura, is referred to as a homunculus by Eiri Masami, a character that could be considered the series' villain, implying that she was artificially created, probably by Masami himself.
    • The Homunculus is a false body that can be inhabited by a willing mind in Sean Williams book series 'The Books of the Cataclysm', once a soul has entered the homunculus it will morph to appear as that person, but is stronger and more durable than a normal human body.
  • In the 2005 movie The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse a homunculus is created in a subplot called "The King's Evil." The chracter Geoff Tipps is reading the script of "The King's Evil" and asks, "What is a (sic) homunculus?" Later, after writing himself into the script, he is being interrogated, during which he is asked, "How do you know of the homuculus?" to which he responds in exasperation, "What IS a homunculus?"
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Other uses of the name "homunculus"

  • In Hideo Yamamoto's manga titled "Homunculus". The graphic novel is about a successful, maverick insurance analyst whose world plunged into chaos after he underwent trepanation.
  • In the video game Shadow of Memories (a.k.a. Shadow of Destiny), Homunculus is the name of an entity that obviously has a great understanding of space and time, and he seems to be helping the main character in the game to escape his death. He seems to be a real homunculus, as his roots seem to be in the age of the alchemists. Very little is known about his past. However, he dresses dark and so are his intentions seemingly.
  • In the Nintendo DS game Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, A Homonculus is portrayed as an aquatic, human-like creature with a greyish-greenish body and a purple face, and is attached to a pink umbilical cord. It's located in a laboratory-themed area, possibly connecting it to the artificial human theme. It attacks by flailing its arms around violently, and can be destroyed by attacking it after it shows its face. It can also be destroyed if you let it come after you and leave the screen (at this point the cord should break and it should eventually drown.) The power gained from its soul allows the player to throw a little Homonculus (based on the actual origins of the term, possibly) that damages enemies.
  • In the computer game Diablo II (specifically the expansion pack released by the name of Lord of Destruction), a Homunculus is a unique shield used by the Necromancer class of characters. It resembles a shrunken head and bears the title "Hierophant Trophy", but no direct information concerning the relation of Homunculus the shield to the literal meaning of Homunculus is given.
  • In Woody Allen's film Manhattan, a character (Jeremiah, played by Wallace Shawn, the ex-husband of Diane Keaton’s character — Woody Allen's love interest in the film), is mockingly referred to as a "homunculus".
  • In The Talons of Weng-Chiang, a 1977 serial from the British television series Doctor Who, the Peking Homunculus is the proper name given to an animated ventriloquist's dummy known as Mr. Sin. The dummy was really an android from the future, with the cerebral cortex of a pig.
  • In Vampire: The Masquerade a Gangrel possessing the ninth level of the Protean discipline may summon a foot-tall replica of himself known as a "homunculous."
  • The word "Homunkulus" in the MMORPG Lineage 2 is in reference to a sword used by mystic classes in the game. The sword is popular for its special abilities.
  • The creature that makes the iconagraph work in the Terry Pratchett novel The Colour of Magic is called a Humunculus
  • The homunculus is a special summon ability of the Alchemist job class in the MMORPG Ragnarok Online.
  • In the trading card game Magic: The Gathering, Homunculus is a blue creature card from the "Prophecy" expansion. Here, a Homunculus is represented as a small, blue, cylopean creature.
  • In the comic called Hellboy, Roger, one of the main characters that appears later on in the series is a Homunculus and is in the break off series B.P.R.D.
  • In the anime Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Daitokuji (Lyman Banner) reveals that he transferred his soul into a homunculus of his own making.
  • In the video game Valkyrie Profile, an evil necromancer creates homunculi out of the bodies of murdered elves that are then infused with human blood. It is his belief that a soul occupying such a vessel could effectively become a god.
  • In the video game, Land of Lore III, the main character can adopt one "familiar" to forever accompany him. One of which you can choose is a female homunculus with an attitude. Griselda, as she's called, has gray skin and black hair and specializes in damaging spells. The game actually hints an attraction between the main character and his familiar.
  • In the video game Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, homunculi with various elemental attributes can be created using the Alchemy talent in the game's Item Creation mode. These can be used to impart these elemental attributes to weapons and armor. The game also features an item called Parcelus' Table, which contains a fighting mini-game using homunculi of the playable characters.
  • In the war game Warhammer 40k the race Dark Eldar have a character type called Haemonculus who create torture methods and are obsesed with the administration of pain.
  • In the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, there are 2 cards that bear the name Homunculus; Golden Homunculus and Homunculus the Alchemic Being.
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See also

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References

  • Florescu, Radu (1975) In Search of Frankenstein. New York: Warner Books.
  • Gregory, R.L. (1990) Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.
  • Gregory, T.L. (1987) The Oxford Companion to Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Maconius, S. (1980) Lore of the Homunculus. N.p.: Red Lion Publications.
  • Ryle, G. (1949) The Concept of Mind. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1949.
  • Waite, A. E., editor. (1967) The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus the Great. New Hyde Park, NY: University Books: 2 volumes.de:Homunculus

es:Homúnculo fr:Homoncule (alchimie) ja:ホムンクルス pl:Homunkulus pt:Homunculus fi:Homunculus

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