Preformation and Epigenesis in the Origins of the Nervous System and Behavior: Issues, Concepts, and their History

Abstract

One of the most enduring and fundamental debates in the history of biology was over the problem of how in each generation a complex, functioning organism could arise from the vastly more simple fertilized egg derived from the parents. This ancient inquiry into the process of individual development marked the beginning of an interest in ontogenetic issues. Although philosophers and naturalists as far back as Aristotle were concerned with this question, it was not until the 17th and 18th centuries that the problem of development became a matter of sustained and serious interest.