Homunculus

Homunculus (masculine, Latin for "little human", plural: "homunculi"; from the diminutive of homo) is a term used, generally, in various fields of study to refer to any representation of a human being. Historically, it referred specifically to the concept of a miniature though fully formed human body, for example, in the studies of alchemy and preformationism. Currently, in scientific fields, a homunculus may refer to any scale model of the human body that, in some way, illustrates physiological, psychological, or other abstract human characteristics or functions.

Alchemy

In Carl Jung's studies of alchemy, he believed the first record of a homunculus in alchemical literature appeared in the Visions of Zosimos, written in the third century AD, although the actual word "homunculus" was never used. In the visions, Zosimos mentions encountering a man who impales himself with a sword, and then undergoes "unendurable torment", his eyes become blood, he spews forth his flesh, and changes into "the opposite of himself, into a mutilated anthroparion (a Greek alchemical concept of a being somewhat similar to a golem but possessing a sense of will and intelligence), and he tore his flesh with his own teeth, and sank into himself", which is a rather grotesque personification of the ouroboros, the dragon that bites its own tail, which represents the dyophysite nature in alchemy: the balance of two principles. Zosimos later encounters several other homunculi, named as the Brazen Man, the Leaden Man, and so forth. Commonly, the homunculi "submit themselves to unendurable torment" and undergo alchemical transformation. Zosimos made no mention of actually creating an artificial human, but rather used the concept of personifying inanimate metals to further explore alchemy.^[1]

In Islamic alchemy, Takwin (Arabic: تكوين‎) was a goal of certain Muslim alchemists, notably Jabir ibn Hayyan (later known as Geber in Europe). In the alchemical context, Takwin refers to the artificial creation of life in the laboratory, up to and including human life.

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 semen, 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.

Preformationism

Preformationism, a philosophical theory of heredity, claimed that either the egg or the sperm (exactly which was a contentious issue) contained a complete preformed individual called a homunculus. Development was therefore a matter of enlarging this into a fully formed being.

The term homunculus was later used in the discussion of conception and birth, Nicolas Hartsoeker discovered "animalcules" in the semen of humans and other animals. This was the beginning of spermists' theory, who held the belief that the sperm was in fact a "little man" (homunculus) that was placed inside a woman for growth into a child. This seemed to them to neatly explain many of the mysteries of conception. It was later pointed out that if the sperm was a homunculus, identical in all but size to an adult, then the homunculus may have sperm of its own. This led to a reductio ad absurdum with a chain of homunculi "all the way down". This was not necessarily considered by spermists a fatal objection however, as it neatly explained how it was that "in Adam" all had sinned: the whole of humanity was already contained in his loins. The spermists' theory also failed to explain why children tend to resemble their mothers as well as their fathers, though some spermists believed that the growing homunculus assimilated maternal characteristics from the womb environment in which they grew.^[2]

Modern science

The homunculus is commonly used today in scientific disciplines, such as psychology, as a teaching or memory tool to describe the distorted scale model of a human drawn or sculpted to reflect the relative space human body parts occupy on the somatosensory cortex (sensory homunculus) and the motor cortex (motor homunculus). Both the motor and sensory homonculus usually appear as a small man superimposed over the top of the precentral or postcentral gyrus, for motor and sensory, respectively. The homunculus is oriented with feet medial and shoulders lateral on top of both the precentral and postcentral gyrus (for both motor and sensory). The man's head is depicted upside down in relation to the rest of the body such that the forehead is closest to the shoulders. The lips, hands, feet and sex organs have more sensory neurons than other parts of the body, so the homunculus has correspondingly large lips, hands, feet, and genitals. The motor homunculus is very similar to the sensory homunculus, but differs in several ways. Specifically, the motor homunculus has a portion for the tongue most lateral while the sensory homunculus has an area for genitalia most medial and an area for visceral organs most lateral.^[3][4] Well known in the field of neurology, this is also commonly called "the little man inside the brain." This scientific model is known as the cortical homunculus.

In medical science, the term homunculus is sometimes applied to certain fetus-like ovarian cystic teratomae. These will sometimes contain hair, sebaceous material and in some cases cartilagous or bony structures.^[5]

Homunculus argument

The 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 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. They see the images as something separate from themselves, projected on the screen. How is this done? A simple theory might propose that the light from the screen forms an image on the retinae 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 that gazes at the retinae. A more sophisticated argument might propose that the images on the retinae 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).

"According to the legend, whenever an agent does anything intelligently, their act is preceded and steered by another internal act of considering a regulative proposition appropriate to their practical problem. . . . Must we then say that for the agent's . . . reflections how to act to be intelligent they 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." Ryle 1949.

Ryle's theory is that intelligent acts cannot be a property of an inner being or mind, if such a thing were to exist.

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 incomplete. The regress argument says that an intelligent agent would need to think before it could have a thought.

A common and effective response to any homunculus argument is that it begs the question in favor of reductionism. As Quine maintains in his book Two Dogmas of Empiricism, "reductionism is a metaphysical article of faith".^[6] One cannot simply go on using reductionist methods forever as it leads to an infinite regress, which is a logical fallacy. At one point or another, one must acknowledge that some things in reality are foundational.

Early literary representations

Homunculi can be found in centuries worth of literature.

• One of the very earliest literary references to the homunculus which also hints of its origination occurs in Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (1643) in which the author states-

I am not of Paracelsus minde that boldly delivers a receipt to make a man without conjunction. ... (Part 1:36)

• The alchemical connection also occurs in the German playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's rendition of Faust, Part 2 which has that famed sorcerer's former student, Wagner, create a homunculus, who then carries out extended conversations with Mephistopheles as well as travels with him to the Pharsalian Fields to save Faust.
• 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 Johann Conrad Dippel, an alchemist born in Castle Frankenstein whom he believes may have been the inspiration for Victor Frankenstein, was a student of Dr. David Christianus.
• In Laurence Sterne´s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Volume I, Chapter II, there is a reference to the homunculus: "(...) the animal spirits, whose business it was to have escorted and gone hand-in-hand with the homunculus, and conducted him safe to the place destined for his reception."
• Johannes V. Jensen writes in "The fall of the king", about a homunculus named Carolus, created by Zacharias a vise man. He was created by removing his skull at the age of 2 and making his head grow up in a glass bowl without limiting its growth. Thereby creating an oracle.
• Writing on the purely superficial westernization of Russian intellectuals in his travel journalism Winter Notes on Summer Impressions, Dostoevsky writes: 'There is no soil, we say, and no people, nationality is nothing but a certain system of taxation, the soul is a tabula rasa, a small piece of wax out of which you can readily mould a real man, a world man or a homunculus – all that must be done is to apply the fruits of European civilisation and read two or three books’

Contemporary literary representations

• In the twentieth century Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, has several references to a homunculus, particularly detailed in a chapter dealing with druidic rites 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, cannot decide if they are wax or indeed authentic magic.
• 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.
• Dennis Wheatley's novel The Satanist Hutchinson 1960. As part of the plot a Satanist using Homunculi as part of his Occult ritual to create air-breathing creatures. The Homunculi were created and stored in large fluid filled jars from a previous ritual. The ultimate transformation required a 21-year-old virgin to be sacrificed and her blood fed to the Homunculi. The virgin had previously been christened to Satan at birth by her father for occult favours and riches, unknown to herself.
• In English novelist W. Somerset Maugham's 1908 work The Magician, Oliver Haddo, a character based on British occultist Aleister Crowley, is obsessed with the creation of homunculi.
• In the young-adult fantasy book Rumo by German novelist and cartoonist Walter Moers, Homunculi are hybrid life forms created out of a giant viscous liquid containing various animal cells. They are used as cheap labour.
• In English novelist Peter Ackroyd's novel The House of Doctor Dee, John Dee, the Elizabethan mathematician, astrologer, philosopher and magus, attempts and succeeds in creating a homunculus.
• American author David H. Keller, 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.
• American poet Sylvia Plath incorporates a homunculus in her 1962 poem "Cut," part of her posthumously-published Ariel (1965).
• In American author Mike Mignola's Hellboy and BPRD comic books, a medieval homunculus is discovered by BPRD agents, revived via pyrokinesis, and eventually becomes part of the Bureau's "enhanced talents" team. Named Roger, the homunculus was alchemically created with blood and herbs, stewed in a jar, and then incubated in horse manure. Some years later, Roger is tragically blown apart by a villain and presumed dead.
• A homunculus called Twigleg is one of the main characters of the 1997 children's novel Dragon Rider by German author Cornelia Funke. This homunculus is created by combining artificial ingredients and a small living creature (probably a small insect or spider). He is also referred to as a "manikin".
• In Jane R. Goodall's 2004 mystery novel The Walker (Hodder Headline ISBN 0-7336-1897-9), ancient secrets pertaining to the creation of the alchemical homunculus are central to a plot involving murders based on Hogarth's prints and set in "Swinging London". The creation of homunculi, together with the search for the philosopher's stone, was a central aim of alchemy. Implicit in the novel is the uneasy speculation that the original experiment succeeded and this evil being may indeed move through history.
• In Sean Williams' Books of the Cataclysm one of the central characters is a homunculus containing the consciousnesses of the Mirror Twins Seth & Hadrian Callisto.
• Micah Nathan's 2005 novel Gods of Aberdeen contains a scene where a mandrake root is pulled from the ground and the protagonist questions if it's being used to create a homunculus.
• In Doctor Illuminatus (Alchemist's Son Trilogy) by Martin Booth, Pierre de Loudéac persists to create a homunculus and succeeds. Also mentioned in the sequel Soul Stealer. Martin Booth died before the trilogy was completed.
• In Hugh Paxton's 2006 novel Homunculus (MacMillan New Writing ISBN 978-0230007369), alchemy is harnessed for modern military purposes. Homunculi created from human body parts and powered by moonshine are used as bioweapons in war-torn Sierra Leone.
• In Nobel Prize winner Johannes Vilhelm Jensen's novel The Fall of the King (published in Danish 1900-01), a homunculus is featured. It is eventually burned at the stake.
• In James P. Blaylock's novel Homunculus, published in 1986, a homunculus is much sought after by several of the book's characters because of its powerful magical abilities.
• In Arakawa Hiromu's Fullmetal Alchemist, the main antagonists are Homunculi. In the manga and 2009 anime, they are created from the fabled Philosopher's Stone with Father, whose original form fits the classical perception of a Homunculus.
• In Kamen Rider OOO, the Greeed are Homunculi made out of coins and fueled by desire that resulted by the actions of alchemists under a king who desired immortality.
• In Nobuhiro Watsuki's manga Buso Renkin, Homunculi are the antagonists for most of the series.
• In the popular Atelier series by Gust Corporation, Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland includes a Homunculi who helps the main protagonist, Rorona, around the workshop.
• The light novel series Baccano!, by Ryohgo Narita, features several characters who are Homunculi created by alchemists that had gained immortality.
• In Jerry Stubblefield's 2009 novel "Homunculus" (Black Heron ISBN 978-0-930773-91-5) the protagonist hallucinates giving birth, through his navel, to the homunculus mapped on his brain, and the little man becomes a major player in the man's failing marriage.
• In the anime Fullmetal Alchemist the main antagonists are Homunculi created through forbidden alchemical processes.
• In the Sony PS2 Video Game Shadow of Memories (Shadow of Destiny in the US) the protagonist, Eike, embarks on a time travelling quest to prevent his own death. He frequently interacts with a creature calling itself Homunculus and is entrusted to hand over the Red Stone (The Philosopher's Stone) to a struggling Alchemist attempting to create the Elixir of Life.
• In the Wizards of the Coast trading card game, Magic: The Gathering, homunculi are a recurring creature type. These homunculi typically have a single, large eye and act as servants to rich, powerful individuals, as well as assistants to mad scientists.
• In Dr Who The Talons of Weng Chiang, the 'Peking Homunculus' was an animated doll running off a computer wired into the cerebral cortex of a pig. It was intended as a plaything for the presidents children, but somehow the pig influence became dominant and the crazed automaton massacred them in the nursery. It was later used as a weapon in Victorian London by Magnus Greel, the Minister of Justice, where it went by the name of Mr. Sin
• In the Sony Playstation 2 video game Haunting Ground one of the antagonists is a successfully created Homunculus, made by the keeper of the castle that you play through. Tormented by the fact that she is not human, the Homunculus takes after the main character in an attempt to kill and use her human parts to "complete" herself. The Homunculus' name is Daniella, and she is voiced by the talented Moira Quirk.
• In the novel Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Random Riggs (2011), the main character, Jacob, encounters a Peculiar boy named Enoch who's Peculiar talent is making Homunculi.

See also

Notes

References

• Weiss JR, Burgess JB, Kaplan KJ. Fetiform teratoma (homunculus). Arch Pathol Lab Med 2006;130(10):1552-1556.
• Watson JD, Berry A. DNA: The Secret of Life. New York, New York: Random House; 2003.
• Abbott TM, Hermann WJ, Scully RE. Ovarian fetiform teratoma (homunculus) in a 9-year-old girl. Int J Gynecol Pathol 1984;2:392–402.
• Kuno N, Kadomatsu K, Nakamura M, Miwa-Fukuchi T, Hirabayashi N, Ishizuka T. Mature ovarian cystic teratoma with a highly differentiated homunculus: a case report. Birth Defects Res A Clin Mol Teratol 2004;70:40–46.
• Florescu, Radu (1975). In Search of Frankenstein. Boston: New York Graphic Society. ISBN 0-8212-0614-1. 
• Gregory, Richard L. (1990). Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing (4th ed. ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-02456-1. 
• Gregory, Richard L. (ed.) (1987). The Oxford Companion to the Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866124-X. 
• Maconius, S. (1980). The Lore of the Homunculus. Red Lion Publications. 
• Ryle, Gilbert (1984) [1949]. The Concept of Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-73295-9. 
• Waite, Arthur Edward (ed.) (1976) [1894]. The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombast, of Hohenheim, Called Paracelsus the Great (2 vols. ed.). Berkeley: Shambhala. ISBN 0-87773-082-2.