Article ID: CBB000831761

The Animal Economy as Object and Program in Montpellier Vitalism (2008)

unapi

Wolfe, Charles T. (Author)
Terada, Motoichi (Author)


Science in Context
Volume: 21
Pages: 537--579


Publication Date: 2008
Edition Details: Part of a special issue on “Medical Vitalism in the Enlightenment”
Language: English

Our aim in this paper is to show the importance of the notion of économie animale in Montpellier vitalism as a hybrid concept which brings together the structural and functional dimensions of the living body -- dimensions which hitherto had primarily been studied according to a mechanistic model, or were discussed within the framework of Stahlian animism. The celebrated image of the bee-swarm expresses this structural-functional understanding of living bodies quite well: One sees them press against each other, mutually supporting each other, forming a kind of whole, in which each living part, in its own way, by means of the correspondence and directions of its motions, enables this kind of life to be sustained in the body (Ménuret 1765c, Enc. XI, 319a). What is important here is that every component part is always a living part, i.e., every structural unit is always functional. Interestingly, while the twin notions of animal economy and organisation are presented as improvements over a mechanistic perspective, they are nonetheless compatible with an expanded sense of mechanism, and by extension, with materialism as reflected notably in the writings of Ménuret and Bordeu. We thus propose both a revision and reconstruction of the historical status of the animal economy, and a reflection on its conceptual status. In judging of the beauty of animal bodies, we always carry in our eye the oeconomy of a certain species. (David Hume [1739] 2000, 3.2.2, 311)

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Article Wolfe, Charles T. (2008) Introduction: Vitalism without Metaphysics? Medical Vitalism in the Enlightenment. Science in Context (p. 461). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000831761/

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Authors & Contributors
Chang, Ku-Ming (Kevin)
Wolfe, Charles T.
Witt, Elke
Williams, Elizabeth A.
Waisse, Silvia
Saad, Mariana
Concepts
Vitalism
Mechanism; mechanical philosophy
Medicine
Biology
Materialism
Physiology
Time Periods
18th century
17th century
19th century
Early modern
Enlightenment
20th century
Places
France
Europe
Institutions
Université de Montpellier
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