Rhetoric and natural history
buffon in polemical and literary context
Author: Jeff Loveland
Volume: 2001:03
Series: SVEC
Publication Date: 2001
Pages: 225
ISBN: 978-0-7294-0747-2
Price: £55
About
This book examines the rhetorical dimension of eighteenth-century natural history. It focuses on the French naturalist and literary stylist Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, author of the bestselling multi-volume Histoire naturelle (1749-1789). Natural history as Buffon and his contemporaries knew it remains a fascinating object of study for its breadth, its cultural openness, and its disorderly energy. Rhetoric here is understood as a set of techniques for attracting and persuading an audience. As a contribution both to literary studies and to the history of science, Rhetoric and natural history adds to our understanding of the intellectual culture of the French Enlightenment.
Acknowledgment
Abbreviations
Introduction
1 Style
2 Final causes
3 The chain of being
4 Systems and theories
5 Mathematics
6 Nominalism
Conclusion
List of works cited
Index
Reviews
Revue de synthèse
Ce livre […] représente une étude subtile et intéressante de l’œuvre d’une très grande figure des Lumières.
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