Human and animal cognition in early modern philosophy and medicine

From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, new
anatomical investigations of the brain and the nervous system, together
with a renewed interest in comparative anatomy, allowed doctors and
philosophers to ground their theories on sense perception, the emergence
of human intelligence, and the soul/body relationship in modern
science. They investigated the anatomical structures and the
physiological processes underlying the rise, differentiation, and
articulation of human cognitive activities, and looked for the
“anatomical roots” of the specificity of human intelligence when
compared to other forms of animal sensibility.

This edited volume focuses on medical and philosophical debates on
human intelligence and animal perception in the early modern age,
providing fresh insights into the influence of medical discourse on the
rise of modern philosophical anthropology. Contributions from
distinguished historians of philosophy and medicine focus on
sixteenth-century zoological, psychological, and embryological
discourses on man; the impact of mechanism and comparative anatomy on
philosophical conceptions of body and soul; and the key status of
sensibility in the medical and philosophical enlightenment.