title: The reconstruction principle.
abstract: The theory of epigenesis is the undisputed paradigm of embryology, and it is still based on the classical concept proposed by Aristotle: the idea that embryonic development is a generation of structures which takes place according to a design--today we say a set of instructions--already present in the fertilized egg. This is a doctrine which can be referred to as 'pre-information', since it claims the preexistence of information exactly as the old theory of preformation claimed the preexistence of form. Here, however, it is shown that a more general version of epigenesis can be held, because of a new principle which states that it is mathematically possible to obtain not only a convergent generation of form, or structure, but also a convergent generation of information.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barbieri
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004626:Embryology / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans