Form---A Matter of Generation: The Relation of Generation, Form, and Function in the Epigenetic Theory of Caspar F. Wolff (2008)
Witt, Elke (Author)
Science in Context
Volume: 21
Pages: 649--664
Edition Details: Part of a special issue on “Medical Vitalism in the Enlightenment”
Language: English
The question, how organisms obtain their specific complex and functional forms, was widely discussed during the eighteenth century. The theory of preformation, which was the dominant theory of generation, was challenged by different alternative epigenetic theories. By the end of the century it was the vitalist approach most famously advocated by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach that prevailed. Yet the alternative theory of generation brought forward by Caspar Friedrich Wolff was an important contribution to the treatment of this question. He turned his attention from the properties of matter and the forces acting on it towards the level of the processes of generation in order to explain the constitution of organismic forms. By regarding organic structures and forms to be the result of the lawfulness of ongoing processes, he opened up the possibility of a functional but non-teleological explanation of generation, and thereby provided an important complement to materialist and vitalist approaches.
...MoreArticle Wolfe, Charles T. (2008) Introduction: Vitalism without Metaphysics? Medical Vitalism in the Enlightenment. Science in Context (p. 461).
Similar Citations
Chapter
Detlefsen, Karen;
(2006)
Explanation and Demonstration in the Haller-Wolff Debate
Chapter
Silvia Caianiello;
(2024)
L'eredità del dibattito Haller-Wolff
Article
Kaitaro, Timo;
(2008)
Can Matter Mark the Hours? Eighteenth-Century Vitalist Materialism and Functional Properties
Article
Marc J. Ratcliff;
(2017)
De la règle de l’exception au principe de Bonnet: les principes épistémologiques des sciences de la vie à partir de 1740
Article
Bednarczyk, A.;
(2005)
Caspar Friedrich Wolff (1734--1794): The Concept of Epigenesis and the Problem of Spontaneous Generation
Article
Zammito, John H.;
(2003)
“This Inscrutable Principle of an Original Organization”: Epigenesis and “Looseness of Fit” in Kant's Philosophy of Science
Chapter
Roe, Shirley A.;
(2010)
Biology, Atheism, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century France
Book
Charles Wolfe;
(2019)
La philosophie de la biologie avant la biologie: Une histoire du vitalisme
Article
Ina Goy;
(2018)
Was Aristotle the ‘Father’ of the Epigenesis Doctrine?
Article
John H. Zammito;
(2016)
Epigenesis in Kant: Recent Reconsiderations
Article
Wolfe, Charles T.;
Terada, Motoichi;
(2008)
The Animal Economy as Object and Program in Montpellier Vitalism
Article
Huneman, Philippe;
(2008)
Montpellier Vitalism and the Emergence of Alienism in France (1750--1800): The Case of the Passions
Article
Wolfe, Charles T.;
(2008)
Introduction: Vitalism without Metaphysics? Medical Vitalism in the Enlightenment
Article
Williams, Elizabeth A.;
(2008)
Of Two Lives One? Jean-Charles-Marguerite-Guillaume Grimaud and the Question of Holism in Vitalist Medicine
Article
Waisse, Silvia;
Amaral, Maria Thereza Cera Galvão do;
Alfonso-Goldfarb, Ana M.;
(2011)
Raízes do vitalismo francês: Bordeu e Barthez, entre Paris e Montpellier
Article
Boury, Dominique;
(2008)
Irritability and Sensibility: Key Concepts in Assessing the Medical Doctrines of Haller and Bordeu
Article
Erlingsson, Steinór J.;
(2002)
From Haeckelian Monist to Anti-Haeckelian Vitalist: The Transformation of the Icelandic Naturalist Thorvaldur Thoroddsen (1855--1921)
Book
Christopher Donohue;
Charles T. Wolfe;
(2023)
Vitalism and Its Legacy in Twentieth Century Life Sciences and Philosophy
Article
Jessica Riskin;
(2020)
Biology’s mistress, a brief history
Article
Catherine Wilson;
(2016)
Hume and Vital Materialism
Be the first to comment!