Abstract
ABSTRACT This essay argues that Erasmus Darwin advances an ethics of relationality based on his combined theory of life and mind. Working across his corpus of poetry and prose, I argue that Darwin advances a model of embodied, embedded, and enacted cognition that underwrites his integrated view of humans and nature, which in turn informs his social vision. Situating all living beings in a single interdependent system, he challenges speciesism by decentering humans in his theories of evolution and society. Darwin advances a model of sympathetic society that includes all living beings, whom he claims possess both reason and emotion. Yet, my analysis reveals a central tension in his philosophy between the drive to improve nature and his belief in its ultimate ascendency. Nonetheless, I argue that Darwin offers a valuable posthuman perspective that incorporates humankind into a world that is much larger and older than it.
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