By the beginning of the 18th century, the theory of preformation was widely accepted and had become the dominant model of embryonic development. The research indicated, “This time period saw the beginning of the concept of emboîtement, meaning encasement: the idea that each offspring is contained pre-formed within the gonads of its parents” (Lawrence 2013). Nicolas Malebranche contributed to this theory and the model by creating a fully reasoned explanation of it based on the Cartesian principles
Leibniz's Distinction Between Natural and Artificial Machines ABSTRACT: I maintain that Leibniz's distinction between 'organic machines of nature' and the artificial machine that we produce cannot be adequately understood simply in terms of differing orders of structural complexity. It is not simply that natural machines, having been made by God, are infinitely more complex than the products of our own artifice. Instead, Leibniz's distinction is a thoroughly metaphysical one, having its root in