1. Caring for animals in early modern France, 1550-1750
- Author
-
Neat-Ward, Lucy, Barda, Jeff, and Brillaud, Jerome
- Subjects
early modern ,france ,nonhuman ,care ,animals - Abstract
This thesis explores how perceptions of nonhuman animals and animal-human relationships intersected with theories, attitudes and practices of care in early modern France. This study comprises five chapters. The first considers the animal-human continuities that Michel de Montaigne envisages and how his philosophical scepticism shapes his perceptions of animals. The second chapter challenges the long-standing association of René Descartes with the beast-machine doctrine. I show how his metaphysics inform his views on animals as feeling beings who possess certain forms of thought and consciousness. The third chapter contends that the beast-machine doctrine primarily arose from Cartesian reinterpretations of Descartes' thought. I then consider how both Guillaume-Hyacinthe Bougeant and Marin Cureau de la Chambre reinterpret Descartes' metaphysics to posit their own distinct theories of animal soul, consciousness and language. Their works emphasise the moral concern we ought to show towards animals and begin to recognise care as a mutual interspecies relationship. The fourth chapter explores how Madeleine de Scudéry's account of her chameleons both reflects the inherent fluidity in the ways animals were perceived in early modern France and demonstrates care as an emotional and a practical response. The final chapter pursues these connections and considers how perceptions of animals informed the care advised for them in the agricultural manuals of Olivier de Serres, Charles Estienne and Jean Liébault. Through a close reading of this corpus, I advance three principal arguments. Firstly, the selected works do not reveal any singular or unified concept of 'the animal/ animals'; they instead reflect diverse interpretations of animal nature and interspecies relationships. Secondly, their perceptions of animal nature were largely shaped by a persisting sense of doubt. The authors studied here predominantly assert that human knowledge is finite and fallible. Given the incomprehensibility of animal life, they instead interpret animals' corporeal gestures empathetically and through careful observation. Finally, their speculative interpretations influence diverse theories, attitudes and practices of care. The works examined here reveal care to be a complex, fluid and reciprocal endeavour through which animals and humans alike care for one another. This thesis ultimately offers critical insight into how these central concepts informed one another and contributed to a distinct mode of perceiving and living alongside animals in early modern France that was centred around an attitude and practice of care.
- Published
- 2022