Article ID: CBB000640063

The Hidden Order of Preformation: Plans, Functions, and Hierarchies in the Organic Systems of Louis Bourguet, Charles Bonnet and Georges Cuvier (2006)

unapi

In eighteenth-century French natural history, the notion of preformation was not only a model for a small preexisting embryo that gradually extended its shape through the influx of particles, but also for an order that coordinated the dynamic relation between organic parts. Preformation depended therefore also on a hidden order behind the continuity of visible forms. Louis Bourguet, Charles Bonnet, and Georges Cuvier distinguished three organizational levels: First, the synchronic or functional order of organic systems; second, the diachronic order of the initiation of mechanical processes; and third, the hierarchical order that regulates the interaction of organic parts. In this essay, I reconstruct and compare the three organizational levels in the writings of Bourguet, Bonnet and Cuvier, relate their models of organic unity to the principle of perfection, and contrast these models with Georges Buffon's critique of system theories.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000640063/

Similar Citations

Article Steffen Ducheyne; (2021)
Geneva, natural history and the art of observing (/isis/citation/CBB038087144/)

Article Cheung, Tobias; (2004)
Charles Bonnets allgemeine Systemtheorie organismischer Ordnung (/isis/citation/CBB000600318/)

Chapter Roe, Shirley A.; (2010)
Biology, Atheism, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century France (/isis/citation/CBB001020056/)

Chapter Renzo Rabboni; (2012)
Ferrara contro il "Giornale": in margine alla polemica Conti-Nigrisoli (/isis/citation/CBB526682413/)

Article Taylor, Kenneth L.; (1971 (pub. 1974))
Natural law in 18th-century geology: The case of Louis Bourguet (/isis/citation/CBB000011184/)

Article Schiller, Joseph; (1975)
La notion d'organisation dans l'oeuvre de Louis Bourguet (1678-1742) (/isis/citation/CBB000015343/)

Chapter Detlefsen, Karen; (2006)
Explanation and Demonstration in the Haller-Wolff Debate (/isis/citation/CBB000771980/)

Article Dario Generali; (2020)
Dall'uniformità della natura alla teoria del contagio vivo in Antonio Vallisneri (/isis/citation/CBB098628564/)

Book Pietsch, Théodore W.; (2012)
Cuvier's History of the Natural Sciences: Twenty-Four Lessons from Antiquity to the Renaissance (/isis/citation/CBB001551124/)

Article Faria, Frederico Felipe de Almeida; (2013)
A carta de Cuvier à J.-C. Mertrud: uma introdução à Anatomia Comparada (/isis/citation/CBB001214023/)

Article Pelayo López, Francisco; (2019)
Entre la curiosidad popular y la ciencia académica: el “hombre fósil” de Fontainebleau (1823-1824) (/isis/citation/CBB790122967/)

Chapter Donato, Clorinda; (2002)
Charles Bonnet et l'Encyclopédie (/isis/citation/CBB000700881/)

Article Aloisi, Massimo; (1974-75)
Biology in the 18th century as seen through the letters of L. Spallanzani to C. Bonnet (/isis/citation/CBB000028288/)

Authors & Contributors
Renzo Rabboni
Simpson, Abby J.
Marx, Béatrice D.
Witt, Elke
Taylor, Kenneth L.
Schiller, Joseph
Concepts
Preformation
Natural history
Biology
Epigenesis
Medicine
Materialism
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
17th century
Places
France
Italy
Switzerland
Venice (Italy)
Geneva (Switzerland)
Institutions
Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen
Université de Montpellier
Académie des Sciences, Paris
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment