Genetic theory expands
preformationism's idea that certain animal traits are assigned before birth--i.e.
-from various versions of
preformationism to epigenetic theories of embryology
Strathausen begins each chapter with a particular event and introduces one or more important debates in the history of bioaesthetics, beginning with the eighteenth-century debate about
preformationism and epigenesis and progresses to the ongoing controversy about sociobiology and neo-Darwinian theory.
Here the author shows his insider knowledge as a scientist who has done research in the field of epigenetics, which against genetic
preformationism stresses the parallel developmental role of gene and environment.
Hence, genes represent a modern version of the traditional form-substance dualism and
preformationism.
(70) In Kant's time, epigenesis stood for the hypothesis that the embryo, in contrast to the view of
preformationism, does not simply resemble an adult of its species and grow, but undergoes successive differentiation in developmental stages toward adulthood.
Women who consider abortion a moral option do so because their understanding of pregnancy, and thus of abortion, rejects the genetic
preformationism that leads others to see the embryo as a distinct individual from the time of conception.