Text prepared, introduced and annotated by Stéphane Schmitt with the collaboration of Cédric Crémière
The fifth volume of Natural History, General and Particular is devoted to the suite of domestic animals. Four new species are treated there : the sheep, the goat, the pig and the dog. Again Buffon displayed all his literary genius, painting a portrait of each animal worthy of the Fables La Fontaine. But beyond these bravura pieces, he deepens his reflection on fundamental scientific and philosophical questions, such as the place of man in nature, the inadequacies of classifications of naturalists or the legitimacy of resorting to final causes. Daubenton, for his part, tirelessly pursues his work of description.
Stéphane Schmitt is director of research at CNRS (SPHERE, UMR 7219, Paris). His research focuses on the history of the life sciences of the eighteenth to the twentieth century, particularly on the development of anatomy and embryology in connection with the development of theories of evolution.
Cédric Crémière, heritage curator and director of the Museum of Natural History of Le Havre, is particularly interested in the history of anatomy and collections.
: : Champion
: : Collection "Age des Lumières"
: : 526 pages
: : 2010, Paris
: : ISBN : 2745320572
: : EAN : 978-2745320575
