Abstract
According to Buffon, the difference between man's cognitive abilities and those of other animals could not be attributed to natural causes. Noting these differences necessarily meant accepting that the Creator had endowed man with an immaterial soul that was unparalleled among animals. This article seeks to show that Buffon's abandonment of naturalism was not the result of a theological premise but of the impossibility of reconciling the presumed heterogeneity between animal and human cognitive faculties with the materialist explanation of the origin of species that Buffon outlined in the course of his writings. If man is assumed to be an exceptional being, the origin of the human race must also be seen as miraculous.
Highlights
According to Buffon, the difference between man’s cognitive abilities and those of other animals could not be attributed to natural causes
The work describes the domestic routine of the intendant of the Jardin Royal des Plantes; and it recounts various statements made by the host during the evening discussions that marked the visit (Hérault de Séchelles, 1984, p.288)
According to Hérault de Séchelles (p.293), the author of the monumental Histoire naturelle générale et particulière confessed to him, “I always alluded to the Creator; but one has to ignore that word and replace it with the power of Nature, which is the result of two great laws: attraction and repulsion.”2
Summary
The discontinuity between humans and animals in Buffon’s Natural history. Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, v.24, n.1, jan.-mar.
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