Article ID: CBB446986848

Theoretical Virtues in Eighteenth-Century Debates on Animal Cognition (2020)

unapi

Within eighteenth-century debates on animal cognition we can distinguish at least three main theoretical positions: (i) Buffon’s mechanism, (ii) Reimarus’ theory of instincts, and (iii) the sensationalism of Condillac and Leroy. In this paper, I adopt a philosophical perspective on this debate and argue that in order to fully understand the justification Buffon, Reimarus, Condillac, and Leroy gave for their respective theories, we must pay special attention to the theoretical virtues these naturalists alluded to while justifying their position. These theoretical virtues have received little to no attention in the literature on eighteenth-century animal cognition, but figure prominently in the justification of the mechanist, instinctive, and sensationalist theories of animal behavior. Through my philosophical study of the role of theoretical virtues in eighteenth-century debates on animal cognition, we obtain a deeper understanding of how theoretical virtues were conceptualized in eighteenth-century science and how they influenced the justification of theories of animal cognition.

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Authors & Contributors
Hoquet, Thierry
Caponi, Gustavo
Cook, Elizabeth
Doran, Thomas John
Umberto Tecchiati
Céline M. Stantina
Concepts
Animals
Natural history
Naturalists
Zoology
Evolution
Ethology
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
Early modern
Enlightenment
Ancient
21st century
Places
France
Scotland
Great Britain
England
United States
Netherlands
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