Genealogy and Belonging. Reproduction, Decent and Kinship in Post-Kantian Naturphilosophie

• Applicant: Privatdozentin Dr. Susanne Lettow
• Subject Area: History of Philosophy ; History of Science
• Term: from 2013 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 246804883

Relations of reproduction and kinship, which are constituted both synchronically and diachronically and thus always have a genealogical dimension, structure the social world in a fundamental way. These relations are subject to cultural, social and political conflict and engagements. In situations of historical transformation scientific, artistic and philosophical debates on the genealogy and origin of living beings and on forms of belonging to social and natural orders proliferate. This is not only true with regard to the present, in which family forms, kinship relations and the process of reproduction itself are undergoing far-reaching social, cultural and technological change. The decades around 1800 are also shaped by an extensive problematization of relations of reproduction, descent and kinship. The research project starts from the assumption that the theoretical debates in the emerging life sciences and the closely related natural-philosophical reflections play a crucial role in this context. The aim of the project is to systematically reconstruct the philosophical and scientific articulations of the topics 'reproduction', 'descent' and 'kinship' in post-Kantian philosophy of nature and to determine their impact on the social and cultural transformations of the period. The subject matter of the analysis is German 'Naturphilosophie' after Kant, firstly, because it offers a relatively coherent discursive formation in which thematically relevant scientific and philosophic reflections overlap. Secondly, post-Kantian Naturphilosophie is a textual corpus that - apart from the most prominent contributions of Schelling and Hegel - has rarely been analyzed up to now. The research project is divided into three parts, in which concepts of reproduction, descent and kinship are analyzed with regard to the following thematic focal points: 1) reproduction, descent and human diversity, 2) sexuality, gender and familial kinship, 3) reproduction, descent and relations of human and non-human living beings.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants