Abstract
This chapter provides a reconstruction of the physiology of vital forces as it was elaborated in the mid- to late-eighteenth century by the physicians and naturalists gathered under the category of the “Göttingen School,” namely Albrecht von Haller (1708–1777), Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840), Carl Friedrich Kielmeyer (1765–1844), and Heinrich Friedrich Link (1767–1851). I argue that the theoretical framework of the Göttingen School implied two fundamental tenets: first, an interpretation of teleology as internal purposiveness (argued by Blumenbach), and second, a proposal to reform natural history in terms of comparative physiology, i.e. as a taxonomy of vital functions and an analysis of their distribution in the animal and plant kingdoms (articulated by Kielmeyer and Link).
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27 August 2019
In the previous version, while the source is cited in the text, footnote and/or bibliography, mostly including exact page number, the report of its content is sometimes incomplete paraphrasis and/or lack of inverted commas. The mis-referenced passages are reported below.
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Reill 2005.
- 3.
- 4.
Lenoir 1981b.
- 5.
- 6.
Zammito 2012.
- 7.
Wolfe 2014.
- 8.
Giglioni 2008, 466.
- 9.
Monti 1990, 45–77.
- 10.
Steinke 2005, 49–92.
- 11.
Haller 1981, 660–661.
- 12.
Ivi, 663.
- 13.
Ivi, 675.
- 14.
Ivi, 676.
- 15.
Ivi, 680–681.
- 16.
Ivi, 687.
- 17.
Ivi, 690.
- 18.
Ivi, 692.
- 19.
Ivi, xiv.
- 20.
Ivi, 27.
- 21.
Ivi, 29.
- 22.
Ivi, 30.
- 23.
- 24.
Kielmeyer 1938, 28–29.
- 25.
Kielmeyer 1993, 6.
- 26.
Richards 2002, 242.
- 27.
Kielmeyer 1993, 12–13.
- 28.
Ivi, 19.
- 29.
Ivi, 23.
- 30.
Ivi, 28.
- 31.
Ivi, 30.
- 32.
Ivi, 35.
- 33.
Ivi, 36.
- 34.
- 35.
Link 1795, 2.
- 36.
Ivi, 9–10.
- 37.
Ivi, 13.
- 38.
Ivi, 22.
- 39.
Ivi, 24.
- 40.
Ivi, 28.
- 41.
Kielmeyer 1938, 236.
- 42.
Ivi, 238.
- 43.
Ibidem.
- 44.
Reill 2005, 199–203
- 45.
Kielmeyer 1938, 239–240.
- 46.
Ivi, 244.
- 47.
Ivi, 244–245.
- 48.
Ivi, 246.
- 49.
Ivi, 248.
- 50.
Ivi, 249–250.
- 51.
Ivi, 250.
- 52.
Ivi, 251.
- 53.
Ibidem.
- 54.
Ivi, 252.
- 55.
Quoted in Bach 1994, 234.
- 56.
Link 1806, 1.
- 57.
Ivi, 117.
- 58.
Ivi, 118.
- 59.
Ivi, 122.
- 60.
Ivi, 200.
- 61.
Ivi, 201.
- 62.
Ivi, 202.
- 63.
Gerabek, 55.
- 64.
Oken 1805b, viii–ix.
References
Sources
Kielmeyer, K. F. (1938). Natur und Kraft. Gesammelte Schriften, hsgb. von F.-H. Holler unter Mitwirkung von J. Schuster, nach den Handschriften zum erstenmal veröffentlicht. Berlin: Keiper.
Kielmeyer, K. F. (1993). Ueber die Verhältniße der organischen Kräfte untereinander in der Reihe der verschiedenen Organisationen, die Geseze und Folgen dieser Verhältniße. Marburg: Basiliken-Presse.
Link, H. F. (1795). Beyträge zur Naturgeschichte, Vol. 2: Ueber die Lebenskräfte in naturhistorischer Rücksicht, und die Classification der Säugthiere. Rostock/Leipzig: Karl Christoph Stillers Buchhandlung.
Oken, L. (1805a). Die Zeugung. Bamberg und Würzburg: Joseph Anton Göbhardt.
Oken, L. (1805b). Abriß der System der Biologie, Zum Behufe seiner Vorlesungen. Göttingen: Vandenhoek und Ruprecht.
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Gambarotto, A. (2018). Functions: The Göttingen School and the Physiology of Vital Forces. In: Vital Forces, Teleology and Organization. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65415-7_2
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