ABSTRACT
In 1775, Kant wrote his essay On the Different Human Races. He aimed to show that humankind is one species differentiated into races, rather than several distinct species. The key idea consisted in determining precisely the concepts of species and races. This question would preoccupy Kant steadily, as he devoted in 1777 a second essay to the issue of The Determination of the Concept of the Human Race. His considerations were based on the reorganization of the concept of species that began in the middle of the century, and whose main architects included Buffon, who counted as Kant’s main inspiration in these texts. Such reorganization is the third prerequisite for the constitution of a concept of organism, in the sense that it will free living organisms from Linnaeus-style natural history, and make them the focus of a new approach that, combining the transformations seen above under the headings of animal economy and epigenesis (with vital forces), would present itself as biology.
