Kant on epigenesis

• Grant number: 09/17385-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2010
• End date: February 29, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Ubirajara Rancan de Azevedo Marques
• Grantee: Ubirajara Rancan de Azevedo Marques
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências (FFC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Marília. Marília , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims to identify the Kantian concept of epigenesis, the records of its applications, the range of its meanings and the polemical net in its background, since the use of that concept involves not so clear assumptions and consequences. However, such a complexity would neither be a good enough reason nor show satisfactory distinct marks to make the concept of epigenesis a central point of research, if that concept were not relevant itself. As Kant scholars have shown, according to his texts, the concept of epigenesis was as relevant for the debate on embryology developed in the 17th and 18th centuries and connected to it as much as for its systematic role in transcendental philosophy. (AU)