Empirical vitalism: observing an organism’s formative power within an active and co-constitutive relation between subject and object

• Published in: History and philosophy of the life sciences Vol. 47; no. 1; p. 9
• Main Author: Hueck, Christoph J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer Nature B.V 24.01.2025; Springer International Publishing
• Subjects: Cognition; Constitutive relationships; Empirical analysis; Humans; Organisms; Original Paper; Philosophy; Physical properties; Plant Leaves; Power plants; Teleology; Vitalism; Autopoiesis; Immanuel Kant; Participatory science; Goethe’s morphology; Objectification; Organic development

This article proposes an empirical approach to understanding the life of an organism that overcomes reductionist and dualist conceptions. The approach is based on Immanuel Kant’s analysis of the cognitive conditions required for the recognition of an organism: the concept of teleology and the assump...