Hans (Adolf Eduard) Driesch

Zoologist and philosopher, born in Bad Kreuznach, W Germany. He studied at Jena and other universities, becoming professor of philosophy at Heidelberg (1912), Cologne (1919), and Leipzig (1921). He did valuable work in embryology and parapsychology, and became an exponent of vitalism. He was forced to retire early by the Nazis.

Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch (October 28, 1867 - April 16, 1941) was a German biologist and philosopher.

Driesch had demonstrated by experiment in 1895, that it was possible to remove large pieces from eggs, such as shuffling the blastomeres at will or taking some away and thus interfere in many ways, yet not affect the resulting embryo.

Using Aristotle's philosophy Driesch proposed the autonomy of life was introduced by way of entelechy, but this idea met with violent opposition.