PHD Discussions Logo

Ask, Learn and Accelerate in your PhD Research

Question Icon Post Your Answer

Question Icon

2 years ago in Development Studies By Veena

I’m looking for reliable sources on the eighteenth-century physiological theory known as “Animal Economy.” Can anyone point me to key texts or scholars?

My work on Enlightenment science has led me to this vital but diffuse concept. I need to trace its parameters: was it a unified theory or a loose collection of ideas about the body's vital functions, fluids, and sensibility? I'm after primary sources from key proponents (like Haller, Whytt, or Barthez) and also the best modern secondary analyses that explain how this framework shaped medical and philosophical thought before cell theory.

All Answers (1 Answers In All)

By Shobha Answered 1 year ago

You're right, it’s a wonderfully complex framework. For primary sources, start with Albrecht von Haller's Elementa Physiologiae Corporis Humani and Robert Whytt's On the Vital and Other Involuntary Motions of Animals. For a systematic modern analysis, I’ve found Tobias Cheung's "The Animal Economy" chapter in The Cambridge History of Science to be indispensable. Also, Jessica Riskin's Science in the Age of Sensibility brilliantly places the theory within broader philosophical debates. I'd recommend searching the digital collections of the Wellcome Library for digitized pamphlets, as the debates were often fought in shorter, polemical works. Be prepared for a concept that elegantly blended mechanism and vitalism.

Your Answer