On Plasticity's Own Conceptual Epigenesis: Malabou on the Origin and History of Plasticity

Abstract

This paper proposes an immanent critique of Catherine Malabou's account of the origin of plasticity, arguing that Malabou's account of plasticity”as a philosophical concept or form”does not meet the standard of her own conception of the epigenetic development of form. Using Malabou's Before Tomorrow: Epigenesis and Rationality, this paper argues that Malabou's own account of plasticity hews closer to theories of formation Malabou explicitly abjures: spontaneous generation and preformationism. Accordingly, Malabou's articulation of plasticity lacks an account of its conceptual epigenesis that would fulfill the epigenetic standards of her own thinking.