Becchi, Alessandro (Author)
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Volume: 39
Issue: 1
Pages: 4
In recent years a certain emphasis has been put by some scholars on Leibniz’s concern about empirical sciences and the relations between such concern and the development of his mature metaphysical system. In this paper I focus on Leibniz’s interest for the microscope and the astonishing discoveries that such instrument made possible in the field of the life sciences during the last part of the Seventeenth century. The observation of physical bodies carried out by the “magnifying glasses” revealed a matter swarming everywhere with life and activity, contrary to the cartesian and atomistic view of matter as something sterile and passive. Moreover, the discovery of uncountable complete “animalcula” living in the smallest drop of water provided evidence for the idea of the preformation of every organism. During his lifetime, Leibniz was extremely watchful about the new microscopical discoveries and came into contact with some of the major “observers” of his time, such as Hooke, Leeuwenhoek, Swammerdam and Malpighi. Relying both on some passages in Leibniz’s texts and on recent critical studies, I will argue that important aspects of his metaphysics have been strongly affected by the empirical observation of the “invisible world” which the microscope made possible. In the last part of the paper I show how the concept of “preformation”, originally drawn from the context of the life sciences, comes to play in Leibnizʼs philosophy a very general role, going far beyond the scope of biology and shaping important aspects of his overall philosophical system.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Detlefsen, Karen;
(2003)
Supernaturalism, Occasionalism, and Preformation in Malebranche
(/isis/citation/CBB000502690/)
Chapter
Pyle, Andrew;
(2006)
Malebranche on Animal Generation: Preexistence and the Microscope
(/isis/citation/CBB000771978/)
Chapter
Roe, Shirley A.;
(2010)
Biology, Atheism, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century France
(/isis/citation/CBB001020056/)
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
(/isis/citation/CBB288202564/)
Article
Anton Kabeshkin;
(2017)
Schelling on Understanding Organisms
(/isis/citation/CBB510688540/)
Thesis
Mengel, Gregory A.;
(2009)
Reconstructing a Legacy: On Overcoming Biological Preformationism, Dualism, and the Inheritance Paradigm
(/isis/citation/CBB001561076/)
Article
Frémont, Christiane;
(1991)
Leibniz: Commentatio de anima brutorum
(/isis/citation/CBB000056602/)
Chapter
Arthur, Richard T. W.;
(2006)
Animal Generation and Substance in Sennert and Leibniz
(/isis/citation/CBB000771976/)
Chapter
Smith, Justin E. H.;
(2010)
“As Long as There Are Squirrels There Will Be Dancing Machines”: Leibniz on Biological Species
(/isis/citation/CBB001023225/)
Book
Duchesneau, François;
(2010)
Leibniz: le vivant et l'organisme
(/isis/citation/CBB001035061/)
Book
Minelli, Alessandro;
Pradeu, Thomas;
(2014)
Towards a Theory of Development
(/isis/citation/CBB001510363/)
Book
Denis Noble;
(2016)
Dance to the Tune of Life: Biological Relativity
(/isis/citation/CBB656945773/)
Article
Bernd Rosslenbroich;
(2009)
Patterns and Processes in Macroevolution
(/isis/citation/CBB447582249/)
Book
Linguiti, Gennar Luigi;
(1984)
Leibniz e la scoperta del mondo microscopico della vita
(/isis/citation/CBB000041568/)
Article
Negroni, Barbara de;
(1991)
La polémique entre Bayle et Leibniz au sujet de l'âme des bêtes
(/isis/citation/CBB000056776/)
Chapter
Duchesneau, François;
(1995)
Leibniz et la grande chaîne des êtres
(/isis/citation/CBB000066629/)
Article
Duchesneau, François;
(1976)
Leibniz et la théorie physiologique
(/isis/citation/CBB000002161/)
Article
Lherminier, Philippe;
(1978)
Leibniz et la philosophie spontanée du généticien
(/isis/citation/CBB000003328/)
Article
Duchesneau, François;
(2003)
Leibniz's Model for Analyzing Organic Phenomena
(/isis/citation/CBB000502687/)
Book
Smith, Justin E. H.;
(2011)
Divine Machines: Leibniz and the Sciences of Life
(/isis/citation/CBB001231547/)
Be the first to comment!