Article ID: CBB986594562

A Feminist Physiology: B. J. Feijoo (1676–1764) and His Advice for Those in Love (2021)

unapi

This essay analyzes how the Benedictine monk Benito Jerónimo Feijoo (1676–1764), one of the most popular Spanish natural philosophers in Europe and America, discussed amorous attraction. In an attempt to reconcile Catholic dogma with empirical knowledge, Feijoo explained the origin of love as the result of wave-like interactions between sensual stimulus, imagination, nerve fibers, and the heart. His physiological model considered men and women to be equal in their internal constituents, which had important consequences for a possible science of matching. First, a possible match could only be known by a physical encounter; second, love bonds could be controlled by training the imagination; third, a harmonious society with happy marriages required accepting the intellectual equality of the sexes. The essay suggests how our knowledge about the nature of emotions influences the way we imagine an ideal society, as it is ultimately about the forces that attract and separate people, as well as the mechanisms to control them.

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Article Hansun Hsiung; Elena Serrano (2021) Introduction: Epistemologies of the Match. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 760-765). unapi

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Authors & Contributors
Hsiung, Hansun
Rivest, Justin
Novi Chavarria, Elisa
Rothmüller, Barbara
Wolfe, Charles T.
Watzka, Carlos
Concepts
Medicine and religion
Medicine
Roman Catholicism
Love
Emotions; passions
Medicine and society
Time Periods
18th century
17th century
19th century
16th century
Early modern
Modern
Places
Spain
Italy
Europe
Brittany (France)
Luxembourg
Germany
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