Kant on epigenesis, monogenesis and human nature: The biological premises of anthropology
Section snippets
The generation of organisms: epigenesis vs. preformation
To understand the specific features of Kant’s position regarding the issue of organic generation, it is helpful to be aware of the scientific context of the time. A passage from Blumenbach’s treatise On the formative drive summarises the debates on generation by delineating two rival theories:
It is either supposed that the prepared, but at the same time unorganized rudiments of the foetus, first begins to be gradually organized when it arrives at its place of destination at a due time, and
The human races: monogenesis vs. polygenesis
The issue of the unity of mankind was very much debated in the eighteenth century, in particular following the publication of Lord Kames’s defence of a polygenetic theory in Six sketches on the history of man (1774).20 Kant, for his part, was
Anthropological characterisation and Nature’s purposes for the human species
In ‘Religion within the boundaries of mere reason’, Kant distinguishes between three predispositions of human nature:
The predisposition I want to focus on here is the predisposition to animality, for I believe it is through its1. The predisposition to the animality of the human being, as a living being; 2. To the humanity in him, as a living and at the same time rational being; 3. To his personality, as a rational and at the same time responsible being. (Kant, 2001b [1793], p. 74 [6:26])
Conclusion
This paper set out to examine the biological dimension of Kant’s account of human nature. I have begun by showing that two premises are required to explain the fact of human diversity: one that secures the fact that there are human types, that is to say that all men belong to the same biological stock and that thus all varieties stem from the same biological origin (monogenesis of human types); and another that secures the fact that there are human types, that is to say that there are
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Marina Frasca-Spada, Nick Jardine, Joan Steigerwald, Cain Todd, John Zammito and an anonymous referee of this journal for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
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