In the seventeenth century, the theory of organic generation by preformation emerged and gained currency among a large number of natural philosophers and natural historians. Preformation is the theory that, at Creation, God pre-formed every organism that would ever live, encasing generation within generation in the reproductive organs of the first member of each species. For preformationists, what we witness as and call generation is merely the becoming visible of what was previously invisible. The motivation most often cited for the re-emergence of this doctrine in the mid-seventeenth century is the fact that early seventeenth-century mechanism, specifically the idea of inherently inert matter externally moved in accordance with a few simple laws, could not explain the generation of complex organic forms of specific kinds. Thus, we must rely upon an external designer up to the task of creating such beings. The PI will conduct research in theories of individuation and the concept of teleology in order to establish that some natural philosophers (Malebranche and Leibniz will be the focus of this research) endorse preformation theory to account for material individuation, because the model of a functioning, self-sufficient organism provides an ideal model of a material individual. These two natural philosophers pursue this route in reaction against shortcomings found in Descartes' metaphysics of individuals as well as his theory of organic generation. In order to expand upon research, the PI will conduct research on the theory and history of teleology, on Leibniz's texts that deal with generation, individuation, and teleology, and on the role of teleology in the generation theories and the theories of individual unity found in Descartes and Malebranche. Intellectual Merit: The project will show the importance of understanding organic generation for gaining a deeper understanding of early modern metaphysics, it will offer a sustained investigation of an under-appreciated motivation for why seventeenth-century natural philosophers endorsed the preformation theory (and consequently, offering a richer understanding of the complexity found in preformationism), it will expand our understanding of the importance of the sciences of life in understanding early modern natural philosophy, and it will add a new dimension to recent studies in the role of teleology in early modern natural philosophy. Broader Impacts: The project will (a) provide a richer historical background to a study of the eighteenth-century debate about generation between Albrecht von Haller and Caspar Friedrich Wolff which is part of the PI's broader research plan, (b) it will provide background to the issues of teleology, generation, individuation, and mechanism which will enrichen the PI's secondary research which focuses on the natural philosophies of early modern women philosophers (and, indirectly, will set the foundations for a study of teleology in the human world so as to enrichen the PI's research into those women's moral and political philosophies); and (c) it will continue to contribute to the PI's innovations in teaching, bringing an investigation of the work of seventeenth-century naturalists to bear on our studies of early modern philosophers.
