Concern, Compassion, Curiosity: Understanding Care and Nonhuman Animals in Early Modern France

我们与非人类动物互动的方式（以及历史上的互动）往往是复杂而矛盾的。作为一个社会，我们对动物的看法和行为方式正在发生重大变化，包括通过立法改革或对动物伦理中关键辩论的日益认识。因此，这个项目的目的是回顾现代早期的法国——一个对动物的态度正在被重新制定的时代，就像现在一样——来理解与动物有关的护理的复杂方式，以及为什么这在今天仍然相关。虽然关心意味着关心他人，但它是一个多方面的概念，包括我们自己和他人的身体和情感需求。为了全面了解这些早期现代人与动物互动的不同方式，该项目包括一个广泛的语料库，从哲学文本到动物护理和兽医手册，自然历史，活体解剖报告和文学作品。通过在女权主义关怀伦理框架内的中心研究问题，目的是证明这些对今天关怀的理解的相关性及其作为理论和实践活动的重要性。

The ways in which we interact (and have historically interacted) with nonhuman animals are often complex and contradictory. As a society, we are currently experiencing significant changes in the ways we think about and behave towards animals, including through legislative changes or growing awareness of key debates within animal ethics. The aim of this project is therefore to look back to early modern France - a time when attitudes towards animals were being reformulated, as they are at present - to understand the complex ways care was understood in relation to animals and why this remains relevant today. Whilst care can mean showing concern for another, it is a multi-faceted concept that encompasses our own and others' physical and affective, or emotional, needs. To gain a comprehensive insight into these diverse ways early moderns interacted with animals, the project comprises a broad corpus, from philosophical texts to animal care and veterinary manuals, natural histories, vivisection reports and literary works. Through framing the central research questions within the feminist ethic of care, the aim is to demonstrate the relevance of these understandings of care today and its importance as both a theoretical and practical activity.