From Konrad Lorenz’s “phylogenetic apriorism” to the birth of Evolutionary Epistemology

This paper discusses the role that Konrad Lorenz, already known as the 7 founding father of comparative ethology, played from the 1940s in the birth and 8 development of a new research area, important for its philosophical and scientific 9 fallout: Evolutionary Epistemology (EE). The first and second sections examine the 10 auroral phase of this process: the successful collaboration between the young 11 Lorenz and the philosopher E. Baumgarten; their attempt to rework the Kantian 12 doctrine of knowledge in the light of the Darwinian theory of selection and evo- 13 lution; the landing of Lorenz to a first formulation of his “phylogenetic apriorism” 14 with the essay Kant’s Doctrine of the A Priori in the Light of Contemporary Biology 15 (Lorenz in Kant’s doctrine of the a priori in light of contemporary biology 1941). In 16 this paper, Lorenz elaborated the theoretical core of an original synthesis between 17 Darwinism and Kantism, and between ethology and theory of knowledge, which 18 later, in Behind the Mirror, led him to conceive the anatomical, morphological and 19 behavioral differentiation of the species as a “process of acquisition of knowledge” 20 (Lorenz in Behind the Mirror. A Search for a Natural History of Human 21 Knowledge. Meuthen& Co, London, 1973). The following sections examine the 22 development of EE from the 1970s to the 2000s. In the early 1970s Lorenz’s 23 “Search for a Natural History of Human Knowledge” seemed to converge with the 24 reflections independently developed by the philosopher K. Popper and the psy- 25 chologist D. Campbell. From the dialogue between the three scholars stemmed the 26 first program of Evolutionary Epistemology (EE): an “integrated theory” that aimed 27 at clarifying both the continuities and differences between biological evolution and 28 human socio-cultural development. The analysis shows how, apart from some 29 common general assumptions, a number of fundamental divergences emerged 30 among the EE’s founding fathers, specifically regarding their explanation of the 31 internal organization of living beings and of the human social, cultural and scientific 32 evolution, which, notwithstanding their efforts, turned out to be impossible to 33 reconcile. The penultimate section provides a concise chronology of EE develop- 34 ments. The last section outlines, in the form of a work in progress which needs further development, the profile of an ethology of knowledge which, starting from 36 Lorenz, should take into account the development of contemporary ethological, 37 epigenetic and evolutionary research.