Kantianism and university traditions in Jakob von Uexküll's biology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2178-6224v21i1p73-90Keywords:
Philosophy of biology, History of biology, Jakob von Uexküll, Immanuel KantAbstract
This article presents some of the philosophical and scientific foundations of the Estonian biologist and philosopher Jakob von Uexküll (1864-1944). To this end, it is divided into five parts. The Introduction presents von Uexküll's main concept, the world-own (Umwelt). Section 1 presents Kant's transcendental aesthetics as Uexküll's main theoretical foundation; section 2 explains the school origins of Kantian influence on the Estonian biologist's background; section 3 emphasises a second aspect of Kantianism that influenced Uexküll's teleology; the last section argues that these philosophical and scientific foundations underpinned the theory of world-owns (Umweltenlehre), as named by von Uexküll.
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