Form - A Matter of Generation

The Relation of Generation, Form, and Function in the Epigenetic Theory of Caspar F. Wolff

Bibliographic Data

ID4516445
AuthorsElke Witt (Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume21
Issue4
Pages649-664
Publication date2008-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience in Context (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0269-8897 • E-ISSN: 1474-0664
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0269889708001993
PMID19245110
OpenAlexW2059491648
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited14

ArgumentThe 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

Biology · Constitution · Epigenesis · Epistemology · Living matter · Living systems · Materialism · Sociology · Subject matter · Teleology · Vitalism · Historical Philosophy and Science · History of Science and Medicine · History of Science and Natural History · Law · Medicine · Philosophy · Ecology

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