KANT. 10 1 



of Buffon and Maupertuis ; he alludes to them both ; 

 in his second work, prepared in 1757, ^^^-^^ not pub- 

 lished until much later, it is evident that his stand- 

 point towards Evolution was very similar to that of 

 Buffon in what we call his ' middle period.' Later, 

 in 1763, he parallels Buffon in tracing back all the 

 higher forms of life to simpler elementary forms. 

 He traces the changes produced in man by migra- 

 tion, differences of climate and the like, and deduces 

 the law of degeneration from the originally created 

 types of species. In 1771 he also brings man into 

 the ranks of Nature, and alludes to his former 

 quadrupedal attitude, here agreeing with Buffon and 

 Helvetius. In his study upon the races of man we 

 also find that he expresses the principle of Survival 

 of the Fittest, as applied to groups of organisms, 

 very much in the form in which it had been stated 

 by Buffon. In this connection he quotes Maupertuis. 

 He also sees the force of accidental variation and 

 of artificial selection in the production of certain 

 external colours. 



Kant's comprehensive view of Evolution, and his 

 hesitation as to the problem of causation, is all 

 summed up in the following remarkable passage 

 (i 790), quoted by Schultze : — 



"It is desirable to examine the great domain of organized 

 beings bv means of a methodical comparative anatomy, in onler 

 to discover whether we may not find in them something resem- 

 bling a system, and that too in connection with their mode of gen- 

 eration, so that we may not be compelled to stop short with a mere 



