This book examines how eight eighteenth-century French theorists - Maillet, Montesquieu, La Mettrie, Buffon, Maupertuis, Diderot, Rousseau, and Voltaire - addressed evolutionism. Each thinker laid down a building block that would eventually open the door to the mutability of species and a departure from the long-held belief that the chain of beings is fixed. This book describes how the philosophes established a triune relationship among contemporary scientific discoveries, random creationism propelled by the motive and conscious properties of matter, and the notion of the chain of being, along with its corollaries, plenitude and continuity. Also addressed is the contemporary debate over whether apes could ever be taught to speak as well as the issue of race and the family of man.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Peter Lang Publishing Inc
ISBN-13
9781433103735
eBay Product ID (ePID)
115927004
Product Key Features
Author
Mary Efrosini Gregory
Publication Name
Evolutionism in Eighteenth-Century French Thought
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Subject
Psychology, History
Publication Year
2008
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
348 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height
230mm
Item Width
160mm
Volume
166
Item Weight
620g
Additional Product Features
Title_Author
Mary Efrosini Gregory
Series Title
Currents in Comparative Romance Languages & Literatures