Catherine Malabou: "Epigenesis of the Text: New Paths in Biology and Hermeneutics"
Department: Comparative Literature
Date and Time: April 22, 2015 | 5:00 PM-7:00 PMEvent Location: HIB 135
Event Details
Abstract: In paragraph 27 of the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant makes use of the expression "system of the epigenesis of pure reason." This biological analogy is meant to affirm that the categories of our understanding are not innate or preformed, but develop themselves just like an embryo, that is through self-differentiation and addition of new parts. To what extent is this idea of self-formation of the transcendental prefiguring the current definition of epigenetics, the science which studies the wide range of non genetic modifications of the living being? It seems that the raging debate that opposed epigeneticism to preformationism in Kant's time finds its current version in the contrasted relationship of genetics and epigenetics. Far from concerning only the biological field, these confrontations also have a central hermeneutical meaning, as it appears in Paul Ricoeur's thinking: interpretation, he claims, has to do with the epigenesis, not the genesis, of a text. Are we facing the emergence of an epigenetic paradigm in culture?
