Kant on the History of Nature: The Ambiguous Heritage of the Critical Philosophy for Natural History (2006)
Sloan, Phillip R. (Author)
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Volume: 37
Pages: 627--648
Publication date: 2006
Language: English
Edition Details: Part of special issue: “Kantian Teleology and the Biological Sciences”
This paper seeks to show Kant's importance for the formal distinction between descriptive natural history and a developmental history of nature that entered natural history discussions in the late eighteenth century. It is argued that he developed this distinction initially upon Buffon's distinctions of `abstract' and `physical' truths, and applied these initially in his distinction of `varieties' from `races' in anthropology. In the 1770s, Kant appears to have given theoretical preference to the `history' of nature [Naturgeschichte] over `description' of nature [Naturbeschreibung]. Following Kant's confrontations with Johann Herder and Georg Forster in the late 1780s, Kant weakened the epistemic status of the `history of nature' and gave theoretical preference to `description of nature'. As a result, Kant's successors, such as Goethe, could draw from Kant either a justification for a developmental history of nature, or, as this paper argues, a warrant from the critical philosophy for denying the validity of the developmental history of nature as anything more than a `regulative' idea of reason.
...MoreArticle Steigerwald, Joan (2006) Introduction. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (p. 621).
Similar Citations
Article
Andrew Cooper;
(2020)
Kant's universal conception of natural history
Article
Caponi, Gustavo;
(2012)
Kant: entre Buffon y Cuvier
Article
Patrick R. Leland;
(2020)
Kant, organisms, and representation
Article
Dalia Nassar;
(2016)
Analogical Reflection as a Source for the Science of Life: Kant and the Possibility of the Biological Sciences
Article
Alsina Calvés, José;
(2013)
Conceptos anteriores a la propuesta del término biología: Historia de los Animales de Buffon
Book
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc de;
(2010)
Œuvres complètes V: Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi
Book
Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon;
Stéphane Schmitt;
(2011)
Histoire naturelle générale et particulière avec la description du Cabinet du Roi, Tome VI, 1756
Article
Andrew C. Kitchener;
James G. Sanderson;
(2022)
When did Alexander Philipp Maximilian, Prinz zu Wied-Neuwied, first describe Felis macroura?
Book
Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon;
Stéphane Schmitt;
(2011)
Histoire naturelle générale et particulière avec la description du Cabinet du Roi, Tome VII, 1758
Article
Bednarczyk, A.;
(2007)
Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon (1701--1788): The Main Ideas of His Science of Life. On the Tricentenary of the French Naturalist's Birthday
Book
Mensch, Jennifer;
(2013)
Kant's Organicism: Epigenesis and the Development of Critical Philosophy
Article
Moser, Walter;
(1984)
Énergie et différence: Visions savantes de la fin du monde au XVIIIe siècle
Book
Cécilia Bognon-Küss;
Charles T. Wolfe;
(2019)
Philosophy of Biology Before Biology
Book
Charrak, André;
(2006)
Contingence et nécessité des lois de la nature au XVIIIe siècle: La philosophie seconde des Lumières
Article
de Jong, Willem R.;
(2010)
The Analytic-Synthetic Distinction and the Classical Model of Science: Kant, Bolzano and Frege
Article
John H. Zammito;
(2016)
Epigenesis in Kant: Recent Reconsiderations
Article
Franco, Paul L.;
(2012)
Are Kant's Concepts and Methodology Inconsistent with Scientific Change? Constitutivity and the Synthetic Method in Kant
Article
Fehige, Yiftach;
Stuart, Michael T.;
(2014)
On the Origins of the Philosophy of Thought Experiments: The Forerun
Book
Parsons, Charles;
(2012)
From Kant to Husserl: Selected Essays
Book
Massimi, Michela;
(2008)
Kant and Philosophy of Science Today
Be the first to comment!