Subjugated Animals Animals And Anthropocentrism in Early Modern European Culture

by Wolloch, Nathaniel

• ISBN13: 9781591024941
• ISBN10: 1591024943
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-01
• Publisher: Humanities Press

Summary

This book is a study of attitudes toward animals in early modern Western culture. Emphasizing the influence of anthropocentrism on attitudes toward animals, historian Nathaniel Wolloch traces the various ways in which animals were viewed, from predominantly anti-animal thinking to increasingly pro-animal sentiments and viewpoints. Wolloch devotes a chapter each to six major themes: early modern philosophical perspectives on animals till the end of the seventeenth century, pro-animal opinions in the eighteenth-century, the connection between attitudes toward animals and the early modern debate about the existence of extraterrestrial life, scientific modes of discussing animals, the role of animals in early modern anthropomorphic literature, and depictions of animals in seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish painting. He concludes his broad, interdisciplinary study by linking these historical trends to the modern discussion of animal rights and ecological issues.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	9	(2)
Foreword	11	(2)
Introduction	13	(10)
1. Early Modern Philosophical Discussions of Animals	23	(24)
2. Philosophical Discussions of Animals in the Eighteenth Century	47	(26)
3. Animals and the Early Modern Debate about Extraterrestrial Life	73	(26)
4. Animals and Popular Science in Early Modern Europe	99	(18)
5. The Theriophilic-Anthropomorphic Tradition in Early Modern European Literature	117	(34)
6. The Historical Importance of Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Animal Painting	151	(26)
Conclusion	177	(12)
Notes	189	(56)
A Bibliograhical Note	245	(4)
Bibliography	249	(28)
Index	277