Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch

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. This was taken as proof that any single monad in the original egg cell was capable of forming any part of the completed embryo.

Using Aristotle's philosophy Driesch proposed the autonomy of life was introduced by way of entelechy, but this idea met with violent opposition. He also held a belief in what he called a three part "doctrine of order", mixed with ideas from the stance of vitalism.