Endowed Molecules and Emergent Organization
The Maupertuis-Diderot Debate
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5818351 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Charles T Wolfe (0000-0002-7956-9085, The University of Sydney, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 38-65 |
| Publication date | 2010-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Early Science and Medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1383-7427 • E-ISSN: 1573-3823 |
| Publisher | Brill (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1163/138374210x12589831573063 |
| PMID | 20499614 |
| OpenAlex | W2086749585 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 1 |
In his Systeme de la nature ou Essai sur les corps organises (originally published in Latin in 1751 as Dissertatio inauguralis metaphysica de universali naturae systemate , under the pseudonym Dr Baumann), Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, President of the Berlin Academy of Sciences and a natural philosopher with a strong interest in the modes of transmission of 'genetic' information, described living minima which he termed molecules, "endowed with desire, memory and intelligence." Now, Maupertuis was a Leibnizian of sorts; his molecules possessed higher-level, 'mental' properties, recalling La Mettrie's statement in L'Homme-Machine , that Leibnizians have "rather spiritualized matter than materialized the soul." But Maupertuis also debated this issue with Diderot, who critiqued this theory in the additions to his 1753 Pensees sur l'interpretation de la nature . Where Maupertuis attributes higher-level properties to his living minima , Diderot argues that these can only be 'organizational', i.e., properties of the whole. At issue here is the degree of commitment to a form of materialism
Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy · Materialism · Pseudonym · Soul · Statement (logic · Theology · Historical and Literary Studies · Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Philosophy
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From the Atom to Living Systems
Zolian Zoology
Does Berkeley's Immaterialism Support Toland's Spinozism? The Posidonian Argument and the Eleventh Objection
Sensibility as Vital Force or as Property of Matter in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Debates
A dark business, full of shadows
Theorizing epigenesis in a time of preexistence
What is living and What is Dead” in materialism
Hume and the rotting turnip
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.69 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2025 (13) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |