Workshop on Life Sciences and Philosophy in the Late Eighteenth Century

The workshop brings together scholars discussing issues of organic generation and development around the end of the eighteenth century.

Topics include: Kant's philosophy of biology, Montpellier vitalism and teleomechanism, Kielmeyer's philosophy and science of life, Lacépède and the problem of species, La Métherie on the principles of vital organization, Buffon and empiricism.

Friday, January 13

14h-15h. Julius Alves (Tübingen) : Kant on biology as a threat to the unity of empirical science.
15h-16h. Charles Wolfe (Ghent): Teleomechanism redux? from functional physiology to the animal economy in early modern natural philosophy
16h15-17h15. Andrea Gambarotto (Bologna-Paris IHPST ) : « The big machine of the organic world. » Carl Friedrich Kielmeyer between philosophy of nature and science of life.
17h15-17h30. Discussion.

Saturday, January 14

10h-11h. Ina Goy (Tübingen) : Kant's notion of formative power.
11h-12h. Stéphane Schmitt (Paris) : Lacépède and the problem of species.
12h15-13h15 François Duchesneau (Montréal) : La Métherie on the principles of vital organization.
13.15-14h Lunch.
14h-15h Thierry Hoquet (Université Paris Ouest) : Buffon and empiricism 
15h-16h Cécilia Bognon-Küss (Paris, IHPST). Nutrition and generation in the Enlightenment
16h15-17h15 François Pépin (Paris): Chemistry and epigenesis in Diderot and Venel
16h15-17h30 Philippe Huneman (Paris, IHPST) : Concluding remarks.

Contact: Philippe Huneman (Paris, IHPST) [email protected], Ina Goy (Tübingen) [email protected].