The Problem of Animal Generation in Early Modern Philosophy

Justin Smith is assistant professor of philosophy at Concordia University in Montreal. A scholar of early modern philosophy, he has contributed to The Leibniz Review, History of Philosophy Quarterly, and the British Journal for the History of Philosophy.

Part I. The Dawning of a New Era: 1. The comparative study of animal development: from Aristotle to William Harvey J. G. Lennox; 2. Monsters, nature, and generation from the Renaissance to the Early Modern period: the emergence of medical thought Annie Bitbol-Hesperies; Part II. The Cartesian Programme: 3. Descartes' experiments and the generation of animals Vincent Aucante; 4. Imagination and the problem of heredity in Cartesian embryology Justin E. H. Smith; Part III. The Gassdendian Alternative: 5. The soul as vehicle for genetic information: Pierre Gassendi's account of inheritance Saul Fisher; 6. Atoms and minds in Walter Charleton's theory of animal generation Andreas Blank; Part IV. Second-Wave Mechanism and the Return of Animal Souls, 1650–1700: 7 Animal generation and substance in Sennert and Leibniz Richard T. W. Arthur; 8. Malebranche on animal generation: pre-existence and the microscope Andrew J. Pyle; 9. Spontaneous and sexual generation in Ann Conway's Principles Deborah Boyle; 10 'Animal' as category: Pierre Bayle's 'Rorarius' Dennis Des Chene; Part V. Between Epigenesis and Pre-Existence: The Debate Intensifies, 1700–70: 11. Method and cause: the Cartesian context of the Haller-Wolff debate Karen Detlefsen; 12. Soul power: G. E. Stahl and the debate on animal generation Francesco Paolo di Ceglia; 13. Charles Bonnet's neo-Leibnizian theory of organic bodies Francois Duchesneau; Part VI. Kant and His Contemporaries on Development and the Problem of Organized Matter: 14. Kant's early views on epigenesis: the role of Maupertuis John Zammito; 15. Blumenbach and Kant on the formative drive: mechanism and teleology in nature Brandon Look; 16. Kant and the speculative sciences of origins Catherine Wilson; 17. Kant and evolution Michael Ruse.