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2 years ago in Bibliography By Krirthi
What are the definitive books or articles that discuss the concept of "Animal Economy" within eighteenth-century natural philosophy and medicine?
I need to build a comprehensive literature review for my dissertation's theoretical chapter. I'm looking for the landmark secondary scholarship that interprets Animal Economy. Which historians of science have done the most to unpack its implications for understanding life, gender, politics, or the self in the Enlightenment era? Are there specific edited collections or journal special issues dedicated to this topic?
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By Nitin Answered 1 year ago
If you want a solid footing for your literature review, it helps to start with a few well-chosen secondary works that really frame the debate.
A great entry point is the edited collection The Animal Economy: Object and Inquiry in Eighteenth-Century Life Sciences (a special issue of History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences). It gives you a clear sense of how the concept was used and contested across different scientific contexts. To place these ideas within the wider intellectual landscape, Peter Hanns Reill’s Vitalizing Nature in the Enlightenment is essential, especially for understanding vitalism and its influence.
For the social and political angles, Ann Vila’s Enlightenment and Pathology is very useful, showing how physiological theories intersected with ideas about health, norms, and governance. You’ll also want to read Londa Schiebinger’s The Mind Has No Sex?, which does an excellent job unpacking how these theories were applied to gendered bodies.
Finally, it’s worth following the citation trails of scholars like François Duchesneau and Shirley Roe. Their earlier work laid much of the groundwork for how historians now approach eighteenth-century physiological debates, and their references can lead you to both classic and overlooked sources.
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