Zammito, John H. (Author)
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Volume: 43
Pages: 120--132
Edition Details: Part of a special section: “On Nature and Normativity: Normativity, Teleology, and Mechanism in Biological Explanation”
Language: English
Timothy Lenoir launched the historical study of German life science at the end of the 18th century with the claim that J. F. Blumenbach's approach was shaped by his reception of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant: a `teleomechanism' that adopted a strictly `regulative' approach to the character of organisms. It now appears that Lenoir was wrong about Blumenbach's understanding of Kant, for Blumenbach's Bildungstrieb entailed an actual empirical claim. Moreover, he had worked out the decisive contours of his theory and he had exerted his maximal influence on the so-called `Göttingen School' before 1795, when Lenoir posits the main influence of Kant's thought took hold. This has crucial significance for the historical reconstruction of the German life sciences in the period. The Lenoir thesis can no longer serve as the point of departure for that reconstruction.
...MoreArticle Moss, Lenny; Nicholson, Daniel J. (2012) On Nature and Normativity: Normativity, Teleology, and Mechanism in Biological Explanation. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (p. 88).
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