The metaphor of epigenesis: Kant, Blumenbach and Herder

• A contextualization of Kant's use of the term “epigenesis” in the B edition of the Critique of Pure Reason.
• An account of Kant's appeal to Blumenbach's understanding of the term “epigenesis.”.
• Elaboration of Herder's significance in Kant's appeal to the metaphor of epigenesis in his critical philosophy.
• Explication of the metaphorical character of Kant's phrase the “epigenesis of pure reason” in the Transcendental Deduction.
• Investigation of the role of the metaphor of epigenesis in the Deduction of the categories of the understanding.

Over the last few decades, the meaning of the scientific theory of epigenesis and its significance for Kant's critical philosophy have become increasingly central questions. Most recently, scholars have argued that epigenesis is a key factor in the development of Kant's understanding of reason as self-grounding and self-generating. Building on this work, our claim is that Kant appealed to not just any epigenetic theory, but specifically Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's account of generation, and that this appeal must be understood not only in terms of self-organization, but also in terms of the demarcation of a specific domain of inquiry: for Blumenbach, the study of life; for Kant, the study of reason. We argue that Kant adopted this specific epigenetic model as a result of his dispute with Herder regarding the independence of reason from nature. Blumenbach's conception of epigenesis and his separation of a domain of the living from the non-living lent Kant the tools to demarcate metaphysics, and to guard reason against Herder's attempts to naturalize it.