A Philosophy of the Insect

Jean-Marc Drouin

Published by Columbia University Press 2019

A Philosophy of the Insect

Jean-Marc Drouin
Translated by: Anne Trager

https://doi.org/10.7312/drou17578

Overview
Contents

About this book

The philosopher and historian of science Jean-Marc Drouin contends that insects pose a fundamental challenge to philosophy. Exploring the questions of what insects are and what scientific, aesthetic, ethical, and historical relationships they have with humanity, he argues that they force us to reconsider our ideas of the animal and the social.

Author / Editor information

Jean-Marc Drouin is a retired professor of philosophy and the history of science at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and a member of the Centre Alexandre Koyré. His works include L’Écologie et son histoire (1993) and L’Herbier des philosophes (2008).

Anne Trager is a translator and editor based in France. She is the founder of Le French Book, an independent press publishing English translations of French fiction and providing translation and cross-cultural services.

Reviews

Michael Marder, author of Political Categories: Thinking Beyond Concepts:
A Philosophy of the Insect is, among other things, an excellent, indispensable, and urgently needed tool for assessing the ethics of an insect-based diet. It is an insightful synthesis of multifaceted constructions of insects in the life sciences (particularly, in entomology), literature, philosophy, and political thought. As such, the book carries forth, with an inviting style and in an innovative manner, the current decentering of the human with reference to other forms of life, often drastically different from us.

Thierry Hoquet, Université Paris Nanterre:
As erudite as it is philosophically stimulating, Drouin's incredible book takes us through the world of insects. A Philosophy of the Insect is replete with innumerable surprises: imagining giant fleas taking part in high jump tournaments, analyzing the perfect geometry of bee cells, and studying the terrible wars of ants. Drouin's insects are both fascinating and repulsive: a real-life version of how science-fiction aliens might look.

Robert Fox, University of Oxford:
A Philosophy of the Insect is a work of profound insight into humanity's encounter with the insect world. Analyzing a long history of human fascination and repulsion with creatures remote from us in size and structure, it invites us to reflect on the ethics of our relations with the wider animal world and even our own status as social beings. Elegantly and persuasively, it breaks fascinating new ground at the interface between history and the pressing ecological concerns of today.

Pietro Corsi, author of The Age of Lamarck: Evolutionary Theories in France, 1790–1830:
With an erudition as vast as the world of insects, Jean-Marc Drouin explores the numberless ways in which scholars and commentators have reflected on our interactions with these wonderful and often bothersome animals. Because of the easy anthropomorphizing of their sociopolitical ways, bees and ants often take center stage, but it is the whole insect world that inspires Drouin’s intense and often surprising meditations.

Colette Bitsch, Paul Sabatier University:
A Philosophy of the Insect offers a meditation on insects' status in nature. With a writing style rich with mythological, literary, and entomological references, the author demonstrates how these tiny beings, champions of animal diversity and prosperity, play a large role in the natural balance.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Tiny Giants Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
2. An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
3. An Entomologist’s Point of View Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
4. Insect Politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
5. Individual Instinct and Collective Intelligence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
6. Battles and Alliances Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
7. Model Insects Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
8. Worlds and Environments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: October 21, 2019
ISBN: 9780231540728