Ricerc@Sapienza

The assertion that humans differ from animals in their use of lan- guage has been the subject of much discussion as scientists have investi- gated language use by non-human species. This paper considers Claude Perrault’s views on animal language and cognition. One of the leader members of the Early Parisian Académie Royale des Sciences, where comparative anatomy emerged in the late seventeenth century, Claude Perrault rejects both the Cartesian hypothesis of beasts as mere automa- ta and of Pineal Gland as siège de l’âme within the human brain.

This paper considers Claude Perrault’s views on animal language
and cognition, one of the leader members of the early Parisian Académie
royale des Sciences, where comparative anatomy emerged in the late seventeenth
century. Perrault rejects both the Cartesian hypothesis of beasts as
mere automata and of the Pineal Gland as siège de l’âme within the human
brain. He conceives the animal soul as an immaterial and cognitive agent
spread in the whole body, involved in the functional regulation of the all life