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The XVII century debate on Homo sapiens

Author:

Leon, Antonio

Category:

Research Papers

Sub-Category:

Philosophy

Language:

English

Date Published:

July 24, 2025

File:

/Research Papers-Philosophy/Download/9200

Downloads:

236

Keywords:

Enlightenment, Scientific Revolution, Descartes, de la Mettrie, Buffon, Voltaire, Hervás, Diderot, mechanicism, body machine, man machine, duality body-soul

Abstract:

As many authors of the time used to say, the Age of Enlightenment, approximately 1700-1789, represents the awakening of long centuries of darkness and ignorance to a new era illuminated by the light of reason and respect for humanity. The study of the conception of man in several representative authors of this time constitutes the objective of this work. After a brief analysis of the Age of Enlightenment, the conclusions obtained on each of the authors studied are presented: Descartes, de La Mettrie, Hervás, Buffon, Voltaire and Diderot. All of them enlightened authors, except Descartes who belongs to the Scientific Revolution of the XVI-XVII centuries. Although all the authors studied dealt with man, not all dealt with the same aspects. Thus, Descartes and de La Mettrie worked more on aspects related to the functioning of the human body, the latter also dealt with certain aspects of human psychology. Hervás, Buffon, Voltaire and Diderot developed a more complete anthropology, taking an interest in aspects such as the human species, races, the constitution and evolution of societies, morality, etc. In the last part of the work, a comparative analysis of the authors studied is presented, which includes their methodology, their vision of the origin and nature of man, their relationship with other species of animals, and the social and moral aspects of anthropology.