ABSTRACT
One of the major changes in the approach to living matter in the 18th century was the emergence of properties that specifically distinguished organic matter from all others. This idea contributed to freeing our understanding of organisms from the soul–body duality under which the opponents of mechanicism still had to think of them; thus, it overcame the rationalist framework within which Stahl was still constrained to think about organisms. I will study the consequences of such an idea, whose resonance for modern biology cannot be underestimated. Many of the authors considered here are mentioned, cited, or discussed by Kant (as were, of course, Leibniz and Stahl). In an important contribution, Zammito (2018) ascribed to the Newtonian epistemic scheme of experimental method the inspiration underpinning these research programs, and, ultimately, a decisive input toward the gestation of (especially German) biology. I will assess these views in due course.
