Physics, Biology, Society

In the combination of the Critique of Pure Reason and the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science, Kant shows how Newtonian Physics is derived from Reason, a system of Phenomena grounded in the Noumenon.  Now, Schopenhauer argues that Reason, too, is no more than part of the Phenomenal World, with Will as the underlying Noumenon, suggesting a supplanting of Rationalism by Volitionism, with Nietzsche as continuing the trend.  However, usually under-appreciated in that concept of Intellectual History is that Schopenhauerian Will is, more precisely, Will to Live, best exemplified by the reproductive drive, and, hence, that it is a Biological principle.  Thus, Schopenhauer can be interpreted as ushering in an ascendance of Biology over Physics as the defining 'Natural' Science, anticipating Darwinism.  Included in that ascendance is the re-interpretation of the atoms of human society as parts of a whole.