Article ID: CBB001211124

On Being an Animal, or, the Eighteenth-Century Zoophyte Controversy in Britain (2012)

unapi

Gibson, Susannah (Author)


History of Science
Volume: 50, no. 4
Issue: 4
Pages: 453-476
Publication date: 2012
Language: English


The article discusses debates about the nature of zoophytes, creatures that possess characteristics of both plants and animals, during the 18th century in Great Britain, focusing on the influence of polyps and similar organisms on thought in natural history and the philosophy of nature. The author highlights naturalists' re-conceptualization of animals and plants based on zoophyte studies, and special attention is paid to naturalist John Ellis' attempts to use chemical experiments to solve problems in natural history. Other topics include problems in taxonomy and systematics resulting from zoophytes; the work of naturalists Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, and Abraham Trembley; and the chain of being.

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Description On creatures that possess characteristics of both plants and animals.


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Authors & Contributors
Caponi, Gustavo
Hoquet, Thierry
Berg, Hein van den
Dear, Peter Robert
Delbourgo, James
Friedman, William E.
Journals
História, Ciências, Saúde---Manguinhos
Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Archives of Natural History
Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology
Biological Theory
British Journal for the History of Science
Publishers
Oxford University Press
Königshausen & Neumann
Concepts
Animals
Classification in biology
Naturalists
Natural history
Evolution
Controversies and disputes
People
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc de
Linnaeus, Carolus
Trembley, Abraham
Condillac, Étienne Bonnot de
Cuvier, Georges
Darwin, Charles Robert
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
17th century
20th century, early
Places
Great Britain
France
Florida (U.S.)
Europe
Switzerland
Prussia (Germany)
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