Transcendental anatomy, also known asphilosophical anatomy, was a form ofcomparative anatomy that sought to find ideal patterns and structures common to all organisms in nature.[1] The term originated fromnaturalist philosophy in the German provinces, and culminated in Britain especially by scholarsRobert Knox andRichard Owen, who drew fromGoethe andLorenz Oken.[1] From the 1820s to 1859, it persisted as the medical expression of natural philosophy before theDarwinian revolution.[2]
Amongst its various definitions, transcendental anatomy has four main tenets:
Johann Wolfgang Goethe was one of many naturalists and anatomists in the nineteenth century who was in search of an Ideal Plan in nature. In Germany, this was known asUrpflanze for the plant kingdom andUrtier for animals. He popularized the term "morphology" for this search. Transcendental anatomy first derived from the naturalist philosophy known asNaturphilosophie.[4]
In the 1820s, French anatomist Etienne Reynaud Augustin Serres (1786–1868) popularized the termtranscendental anatomy to refer to the collective morphology of animal development.[3] Synonymous expressions such as philosophical anatomy, higher anatomy, and transcendental morphology also arose at this time.
Some advocates regarded transcendental anatomy as the ultimate explanation for biological structures, while others saw it as one of several necessary explanatory devices.[3]
Transcendental anatomists theorized that the bones of the skull were "cranial vertebra", or modified bones from the vertebrae.[1] Owen ardently supported the theory as major evidence for his theory ofhomology.[5]
The theory has since been discredited.
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| Bacteria and fungi | ||
| Protists | ||
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| Invertebrates | ||
| Mammals | ||
| Other vertebrates | ||
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