Philosophy of Biology: Outline of a Transcendental Project

Abstract

This paper analyses the actual meaning of a transcendental philosophy of biology, and does so by exploring and actualising the epistemological and metaphysical value of Kant's viewpoint on living systems. It finds inspiration in the Kantian idea of living systems intrinsically resisting objectification, but critically departs from Kant's philosophical solution in as far as it is based in a subjectivist dogmatism. It attempts to overcome this dogmatism, on the one hand by explicitly taking into account the conditions of possibility at the side of the subject, and on the other hand by embedding both the living and the knowing system into an ontology of complexly organized dynamical systems. This paper fits into the transcendental perspective in acknowledging the need to analyse the conditions of knowability, prior to the contents of what is known. But it also contributes to an expansion and an actualisation of the issue of transcendentality itself by considering the conditions of possibility at the side of the object as intrinsically linked to the conditions of possibility at the side of the subject.

Des fantômes dans la voix. Une hypothèse neuropsychanalytique sur la structure de l’inconscient

“…Quelques paragraphes plus loin, il écrit que « pensée cognitive ou jugement cherchent à s'identifier à un investissement somatique[…]. [L]e423 Ce renversement épistémologique est à comprendre dans le cadre d'une perspective transcendantale (voir VAN DE VIJVER G.,VAN SPEYBROECK L., DE WAELE D., DE PREESTER H. & KOLEN F. (2005). Current philosophy of biology: outline of a transcendental project.…”

Philosophy of Biology: About the Fossilization of Disciplines and Other Embryonic Thoughts

“…In the publications resulting from this event (i.e. Callebaut 2005; Van de Vijver et al 2005), an initial disagreement about this very nature appeared. With Filip Kolen and Gertrudis Van de Vijver (Ghent University, Belgium) defending a so-called transcendental view on philosophy of biology and Werner Callebaut (Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Austria and Hasselt University, Belgium) in arms for a naturalistic philosophy of biology, the depth of this disagreement is further explored in this volume (see also the contribution of Kolen and Van de Vijver, and of Callebaut in this volume).…”

“…Callebaut's criticism on this viewpoint exists in arguing that a Kantian stance no longer is fashionable and that philosophical thoughts on biology at least went through some transformations going from Immanuel Kant to Charles Darwin. 4 This position is somewhat provoked by Van de Vijver et al (2005), who explicitly link transcendentalism to Kant. In Kolen and Van de Vijver (this vloume), however, this discussion is magnified into a discussion about starting points: when 2 Also academic philosophers now and then 'literally' breed, which explains my physical absence at our Department for a couple of months, after which time pressure hindered our initial planning to co-write a Letter to the Editor.…”

A laid-back trip through the Hennigian Forests

“…For example, this focus is not quite relevant within the framework of critical philosophy (Mavrodiev, 2016, see also Van de Vijver et al, 2005 and Kolen & Van de Vijver, 2007 among others), which has likely never been mentioned in the discussed context until recently.…”