Animal Rhetoric and Natural Science in Eighteenth-Century Liberal Political Writing
Political Zoologies of the French Enlightenment
1st Edition
Published on 26. May 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
260 pages
978-1-032-60576-0 (ISBN)
Description
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 Michele 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 Retif 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.
Reviews / Votes
"The timely intervention of Animal Rhetoric and Natural Science in Eighteenth-Century Liberal Political Writing leaves an indelible mark in the conversation around liberalism, animality, and human nature in eighteenth-century European thought [...] By tracking the animal through the mutually constitutive, hybrid frames of natural science and political philosophy, Billing, with nuanced theoretical discernment, successfully and provocatively realigns the parameters of current discussions about the French Enlightenment and its legacy."- Scott Venters, Drama and Humanities, Dallas College
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Postgraduate
Illustrations
4 s/w Abbildungen, 4 s/w Photographien bzw. Rasterbilder
4 Halftones, black and white; 4 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
404 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-032-60576-0 (9781032605760)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Andrew Billing
Animal Rhetoric and Natural Science in Eighteenth-Century Liberal Political Writing
Political Zoologies of the French Enlightenment
E-Book
12/2023
1st Edition
Taylor & Francis
€60.49
Available for download
Andrew Billing
Animal Rhetoric and Natural Science in Eighteenth-Century Liberal Political Writing
Political Zoologies of the French Enlightenment
E-Book
12/2023
1st Edition
Taylor & Francis
€60.49
Available for download
Andrew Billing
Animal Rhetoric and Natural Science in Eighteenth-Century Liberal Political Writing
Political Zoologies of the French Enlightenment
Book
12/2023
1st Edition
Routledge
€231.90
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Andrew Billing is an Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota, who specializes in French Enlightenment literature, philosophy, and political thought. He completed his doctorate on Rousseau's political writings at the University of California, Irvine. He has articles published and forthcoming on Rousseau, Quesnay, Louis-Sebastien Mercier, Diderot, and other early modern French political authors, and co-edited a special volume of L'Esprit Createur on Paris, capitalism and modernity with Juliette Cherbuliez.
Content
Acknowledgments
French Enlightenment Political Zoology: A Definition
"Political Zoology" as a Hybrid Science
Disenchanting the Animal in French Enlightenment Political Rhetoric
Enlightenment Anthropology and New Theories of animalite
Empiricist Natural Science and the Critique of Political Absolutism
An Emergent Eighteenth-Century French Liberalism
1 La Mettrie's Hybrid Medical and Political Science
This Bold Analogy: La Mettrie, Descartes, and the Vicissitudes of the Animal-Machine Figure
Machine Rhetoric and the Animal Economy in L'Homme Machine
The Animal in La Mettrie's Anthropological Machine
The Moral Sentiments, Natural Law, and the"Prerogatives of Animality"
The Animal-Machine as Moral Image in the Discours sur le bonheur
The Limits of La Mettrie's Liberalism: The Philosopher, the Sovereign, and the People in the Discours preliminaire
2 Political Economy as an Animal Economy in Francois Quesnay
General and Particular Economics and the "great law of the natural order"
Theorizing the Animal Economy in the Essai physique sur l'economie animale
Animals, Representation, and Nature in Quesnay's Political Economy
Quesnay's "Liberal Despotism": The Animal and the economie morale
3 The Animal in Question in Diderot's Moral and Political Philosophy
Thinking Politics in an Animal Laboratory
Diderot's Bee: Morality, Politics, and the Interpretation of Nature
Animal and Human Morality in Diderot's Encylopedie Essays
Beyond the Human: Diderot's Elements de physiologie
Animality, Anarchism, and The Nature of Happiness
4 Political Anthropology and Its Animal Other in Rousseau
Animal Origins and Human Foundations in the Discours sur l'inegalite
Liberty, Equality, and Human Specificity
Rousseau's Moral Sentiments: Pity, "Love of Oneself," and the "Ferocious Beast"
The Disappearance of the Compassionate Animal in Emile and the Essai sur l'origine des langues
Rousseau's Primitivism: Ferocity as Amour de soi
5 Animality, Race, and "Liberal Empire" in Retif de La Bretonne
Retif's Real and Perfect Republic: Liberalism Between Absolutism and Communism
Retif's Imperial Zoology: The Animal as Predator and Racialized Other
A Politics Beyond the Predator/Prey Distinction?
Patagonia and Megapatagonia Retif's Imperial Desire: Promissory Liberalism and "Unequal Fraternity"
"The inconceivable Animal-human": Animality, Race, and metissage in the Lettre d'un singe aux etres de son espece
Conclusion
Index
French Enlightenment Political Zoology: A Definition
"Political Zoology" as a Hybrid Science
Disenchanting the Animal in French Enlightenment Political Rhetoric
Enlightenment Anthropology and New Theories of animalite
Empiricist Natural Science and the Critique of Political Absolutism
An Emergent Eighteenth-Century French Liberalism
1 La Mettrie's Hybrid Medical and Political Science
This Bold Analogy: La Mettrie, Descartes, and the Vicissitudes of the Animal-Machine Figure
Machine Rhetoric and the Animal Economy in L'Homme Machine
The Animal in La Mettrie's Anthropological Machine
The Moral Sentiments, Natural Law, and the"Prerogatives of Animality"
The Animal-Machine as Moral Image in the Discours sur le bonheur
The Limits of La Mettrie's Liberalism: The Philosopher, the Sovereign, and the People in the Discours preliminaire
2 Political Economy as an Animal Economy in Francois Quesnay
General and Particular Economics and the "great law of the natural order"
Theorizing the Animal Economy in the Essai physique sur l'economie animale
Animals, Representation, and Nature in Quesnay's Political Economy
Quesnay's "Liberal Despotism": The Animal and the economie morale
3 The Animal in Question in Diderot's Moral and Political Philosophy
Thinking Politics in an Animal Laboratory
Diderot's Bee: Morality, Politics, and the Interpretation of Nature
Animal and Human Morality in Diderot's Encylopedie Essays
Beyond the Human: Diderot's Elements de physiologie
Animality, Anarchism, and The Nature of Happiness
4 Political Anthropology and Its Animal Other in Rousseau
Animal Origins and Human Foundations in the Discours sur l'inegalite
Liberty, Equality, and Human Specificity
Rousseau's Moral Sentiments: Pity, "Love of Oneself," and the "Ferocious Beast"
The Disappearance of the Compassionate Animal in Emile and the Essai sur l'origine des langues
Rousseau's Primitivism: Ferocity as Amour de soi
5 Animality, Race, and "Liberal Empire" in Retif de La Bretonne
Retif's Real and Perfect Republic: Liberalism Between Absolutism and Communism
Retif's Imperial Zoology: The Animal as Predator and Racialized Other
A Politics Beyond the Predator/Prey Distinction?
Patagonia and Megapatagonia Retif's Imperial Desire: Promissory Liberalism and "Unequal Fraternity"
"The inconceivable Animal-human": Animality, Race, and metissage in the Lettre d'un singe aux etres de son espece
Conclusion
Index