ABSTRACT
We should neither overestimate nor underestimate Imre Festetics's contribution to the history of heredity research. Festetics's Genetic Laws of Nature are an important stepping-stone in genetic prehistory. Festetics argued that changes observed in the generation of organisms are the result of scientific laws. Festetics empirically deduced that organisms inherit their characteristics, not acquire them. He recognized recessive traits and inherent variation by postulating that traits of past generations could reappear later, and organisms could produce progeny with different attributes. These observations represent an important prelude to Mendel's theory of particulate inheritance insofar as it features a transition of heredity from its status as myth to that of an academic subject. It is important from a historical perspective and at the same time for research in ongoing discoveries. His experiments often escape philosophical and historical attention; however, they belong to “action-guided” approaches reflecting a practical purpose of establishing a cause-effect relationship.
