Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.31823/d.34.2.2
(Meta)scientific Controversies in Eighteenth-Century Embryology: An Analysis of the Haller–Wolff Debate
Predrag Šustar
; University of Rijeka, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
This paper examines the dynamics of scientific debates in eighteenth-century embryology. In particular, it focuses on a multi-layered controversy between Haller’s preformationist theories and Wolff’s epigenesis. This controversy combines several research strategies for addressing the problem of embryonic development. These strategies include experimental methods, conceptual analyses, and, more broadly, philosophical and theological arguments. Accordingly, the paper first examines the apparently crucial »membrane-continuity proof« and Wolff’s objections to it. It then addresses related epistemological questions, particularly the problem of theory choice between preformationism and epigenesis at the dawn of the modern life sciences.
Keywords
Albrecht von Haller; Caspar Friedrich Wolff; embryonic development; preformationism; epigenesis; experimental evidence; inference; theory choice; life sciences
Hrčak ID:
351438
URI
Publication date:
25.9.2026.
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