A Natural morphology in Kant and Buffon

Abstract

During the 18th century, while Newton’s mechanical physics was  consolidated in Europe, natural history (re)emerged as a science focused on the knowledge of the particular in nature. Whereas the former investigated the general laws of  phenomena, the latter researched the “prodigious multitude” of natural beings in all the diversity of their  forms. Buffon was inspired by the
empiricism of his time and thus  believed that the naturalist should observe these forms and proceed inductively to abstract knowledge. Every natural system should be  rejected, according to him, since they were nothing but artificial constructions of reason. Given the indeterminable dimension of its object, natural history should advance indefinitely in its extension, remaining an open science. In contrast, Kant affirms that a systematic conception of nature is required by reason itself, and
cannot therefore be rejected by the  researcher. In his transcendental philosophy, he tries to rehabilitate its role in natural history, without  disavowing the anti-dogmatic demands of the critique.