Cuvier was the most decided opponent of these views, and according to
what we have seen, it could not be otherwise. He endeavoured to show
that the nature-philosophers had no right to rear such comprehensive
conclusions on the basis of the empirical knowledge then possessed, and
that the unity of organization--or plan of structure of organisms--as
maintained by them, did not exist. He represented the teleological
(dualistic) conception of nature, and maintained that "the immutability
of species was a necessary condition for the existence of a scientific
history of nature," Cuvier had the great advantage over his opponent,
that he was able to bring towards the proof of his assertions things
obvious to the eye; these, however, were only individual facts taken out
of their connection with others. Geoffroy was not able to prove the
higher and general connection of individual phenomena which he
maintained, by equally tangible details. Hence Cuvier, in the eyes of
the majority, gained the victory, and decided the defeat of the
nature-philosophy and the supremacy of the strictly empiric tendency for
the next thirty years.