Organisers: Florence Magnot-Ogilvy (Laboratoire CELLAM, Rennes 2) and Sophie Mesplède
(Laboratoire ACE, Rennes 2)
Date: Thursday 6 June 2024
Location: Université Rennes 2
This study day is supported by the GIS Sociabilités
Since the non-human turn of the early 21st century, numerous critical works have examined the animal question in the 18th century, a time when humanity’s place in the world, the relationship between human beings and non-human animals, the latter’s sensibility and debates on the sensory soul were at the heart of the reflections of philosophers, physicians, naturalists and educationalists.
Few studies, however, have explored the question of meat- and non-meat-eating patterns specifically from the point of view of sociability.6 Yet the issue formed one of the dividing lines in sociability, between men and women, young and old, people from different backgrounds, but also, in a new way, between humans and non-humans, in a century in which pets were playing an increasingly important role in human sociability.7 As more and more human beings developed unique emotional relationships with cats, dogs, monkeys and birds, to name but a few companion species, the question arose as to whether or not the bodies of animals credited with sensibility should be consumed. Some naturalists and writers, such as the Englishman Lord Monboddo and the hunter-philosopher Charles Georges Leroy, author of Lettres sur les animaux, recognized the ability of these animals to aggregate into communities that they felt were close to human societies. The tradition of the metempsychosis narrative, revived by the
vogue for Orientalism, was then articulated in an unprecedented way with reflections on point of view, sensibility and individuality.
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