Animal Rhetoric and Natural Science in Eighteenth-Century Liberal Political Writing: Political Zoologies of the French Enlightenment (Routledge Studies in French and Francophone Literature)

By: Andrew Billing

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Synopsis: Our tendency to read French Enlightenment political writing from a narrow disciplinary perspective has obscured the hybrid character of political philosophy, rhetoric, and natural science in the period. As Michèle Duchet and others have shown, French Enlightenment thinkers developed a philosophical anthropology to support new political norms and models. This book explores how five important eighteenth-century French political authors—Rousseau, Diderot, La Mettrie, Quesnay, and Rétif de La Bretonne—also constructed a "political zoology" in their philosophical and literary writings informed by animal references drawn from Enlightenment natural history, science, and physiology. Drawing on theoretical work by Derrida, Latour, de Fontenay, and others, it shows how these five authors signed on to the old rhetorical tradition of animal comparisons in political philosophy, which they renewed via the findings and speculations of contemporary science. Engaging with recent scholarship on Enlightenment political thought, it also explores the links between their political zoologies and their family resemblance as "liberal" political thinkers.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:: 9781003812487
Related ISBNs:: 9781032605760, 9781003459705, 9781032605722
Publisher:: Taylor and Francis
Date of Addition:: 12/07/23
Copyrighted By:: Andrew Billing
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: History, Nonfiction, Animals, Literature and Fiction, Outdoors and Nature, Language Arts
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.