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Animal Bodies and Human Minds: The Anatomy of the Brain and the Analogy of Nature

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Testimonies: States of Mind and States of the Body in the Early Modern Period

Part of the book series: Archimedes ((ARIM,volume 57))

Abstract

How did the widespread and lasting assumption of an analogy between animal and human bodies affect ideas about the mind-body relationship? In particular, how did seventeenth-century men of science justify their employment of animal brains to talk about human brains and minds? Galenic ideas of the structure of the brain, based on animals, gave way to a multiplicity of ideas about the relationship between the brain and the mind (or soul). The continued reliance on animal models would seem to conflict with a new emphasis on specifically human structures and behaviors. But at the same time anatomists and philosophers also looked anew at animal cognition. The work of Marin Cureau de la Chambre, Niels Stensen, and Thomas Willis reveals some of these new ideas and the tensions that resulted.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    von Staden 2013.

  2. 2.

    Descartes 1985, I:141.

  3. 3.

    Frank 1980.

  4. 4.

    Vidal 2009.

  5. 5.

    Atran 1987.

  6. 6.

    Aristotle 1965; see Lloyd 1961.

  7. 7.

    Aristotle 1965, 486a14-b22; cf. Wilson 1997, 335–36.

  8. 8.

    Wilson 1997 gives a good survey of the interpretive issues surrounding Aristotle’s concept of analogy, which I will not repeat here.

  9. 9.

    Balme 1972, 148.

  10. 10.

    Harrison 1998, 465.

  11. 11.

    Balme 1972, 147–48.

  12. 12.

    Lloyd 1975, 142.

  13. 13.

    Galen 1956.

  14. 14.

    Anatomia Cophonis 1927.

  15. 15.

    Hippocrates 1978.

  16. 16.

    von Staden 1989, 157–58.

  17. 17.

    See Dolan 2007, Vidal 2009.

  18. 18.

    Hankinson 1991.

  19. 19.

    Galen 1956, 226–27, 1968, 430–34; Finger 1994, 16–17.

  20. 20.

    Pranghofer 2009.

  21. 21.

    Vesalius 1952, 3.

  22. 22.

    Vesalius 1952, 4.

  23. 23.

    Vesalius 1952, 6–7.

  24. 24.

    Vesalius 1952, 39–40.

  25. 25.

    Riolan 1628–29, 91.

  26. 26.

    Du Laurens 1600, 531.

  27. 27.

    Bynum 1973, 445.

  28. 28.

    Descartes 1985, III:40; see also Clarke 2003.

  29. 29.

    Descartes 1985, I:107.

  30. 30.

    Descartes 1985, I:100.

  31. 31.

    Descartes 1985, III: 143.

  32. 32.

    Bitbol-Hespériès 1990, 97; my translation.

  33. 33.

    Finger 1994, 26, 1995; Galen 1968, 419–420.

  34. 34.

    Guerrini 2015.

  35. 35.

    Bayle 1684, I:19–20.

  36. 36.

    Cureau de la Chambre 1658, “Advis necessaire au lecteur”. All translations from Cureau de la Chambre are mine.

  37. 37.

    Ibid.

  38. 38.

    Cureau de la Chambre 1664, 217; see Wright 1991.

  39. 39.

    See, for example, du Laurens 1600, Riolan 1628–29.

  40. 40.

    Dictionnaire 1694.

  41. 41.

    Cureau de la Chambre 1660b, 2; Wild 2008, 445.

  42. 42.

    Cureau de la Chambre 1660b; Thomas 1983, 30–41.

  43. 43.

    Cureau de la Chambre 1660b, 49–55.

  44. 44.

    Cureau de la Chambre 1660b, 19; Harrison 1998, 472–76.

  45. 45.

    Descartes 1985 III: 62–63.

  46. 46.

    Chanet 1643, 47, 57.

  47. 47.

    Chanet 1646, 2.

  48. 48.

    Ibid., 4.

  49. 49.

    Ibid., 120, 160–63.

  50. 50.

    Cureau de la Chambre 1648, Epistre.

  51. 51.

    Guerrini 2015.

  52. 52.

    Cureau de la Chambre 1648, 4–5.

  53. 53.

    Cureau de la Chambre 1648, 3–4. See also Boas 1933, 74–82; Harrison 1998, 475–479.

  54. 54.

    Cureau de la Chambre 1648, 275–390.

  55. 55.

    Descartes 1985 I: 356, 360–61.

  56. 56.

    Guerrini 2015.

  57. 57.

    Stensen 1669, 5.

  58. 58.

    Ibid., 13.

  59. 59.

    Ibid., 13–14.

  60. 60.

    Finger 1995.

  61. 61.

    Stensen 1669, 21.

  62. 62.

    Guerrini 2013.

  63. 63.

    Stensen 1669, 36; Pecquet 1651.

  64. 64.

    Stensen 1669, 54.

  65. 65.

    Ibid., 55.

  66. 66.

    Frank 1980, 126.

  67. 67.

    Willis 1672; Frank 1980, 67, 68, 130–31; Dewhurst 1968.

  68. 68.

    Willis 1672; Bynum 1973, 449.

  69. 69.

    Willis 1667.

  70. 70.

    See also Crignon 2017.

  71. 71.

    Willis 1684, 46.

  72. 72.

    Willis 1684, 46.

  73. 73.

    Vesalius 1952.

  74. 74.

    Willis 1684, 76.

  75. 75.

    Ibid.

  76. 76.

    Ibid., 100–101; Martensen 2004, 138–39.

  77. 77.

    Willis 1684, 91–92.

  78. 78.

    Frank 1980.

  79. 79.

    Willis 1683, 41–42.

  80. 80.

    Ibid., 153; Bynum 1973, 456.

  81. 81.

    Knoeff 2004, 431.

  82. 82.

    Willis 1683, 209–14; Cranefield 1961.

  83. 83.

    Tyson 1680, 40.

  84. 84.

    Tyson 1699, 54–55; Kruger 2003, 345–46.

  85. 85.

    Tyson 1699, 55.

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  1. Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Anita Guerrini

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  1. Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, USA, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Gideon Manning

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Guerrini, A. (2020). Animal Bodies and Human Minds: The Anatomy of the Brain and the Analogy of Nature. In: Manning, G. (eds) Testimonies: States of Mind and States of the Body in the Early Modern Period. Archimedes, vol 57. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39375-5_7

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