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Third edition of a work first published as "Allgemeine Betrachtungen über die Triebe der Thiere" in Hamburg in 1760, and soon translated into Dutch (1761) and French (1770). The second edition of 1773 was retitled and carried, as here, a foreword and commentary by the author's son. 'Reimarus's Allgemeine Betrachtungen über die Triebe der Thiere took aim at Condillac's Traité des animaux (1755). It can be situated in the (deistic-) physico-theological tradition and, born from wonder, seeks to highlight the craftsmanship at work in animals. The author saw this actualized mostly through the artistic drive, which he considered to be an arbitrary impulse, existing alongside mechanistic and the imaginative impulses. He classified each impulse or drive into ten groups, such as desires for mating and social interaction, and he believed them to be inborn tendencies which arose from the predefined natural powers of animals and aimed at the preservation and well-being of each animal and its descendents. With this work, which is considered to be 'the first and most comprehensive study of animal behavior' (Ernst Mayr), Reimarus became one of the co-founders of modern animal psychology. In addition to Mendelssohn, figures such as Johann Nikolaus Tetens and Herder engaged in a critical reading of text. Reimarus s work also reverberated with Schelling and excited the young Karl Marx' (Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophers). PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Small 8vo, viii, 241, [35] pp., contemporary speckled boards, black spine labels lettered gilt, title-page spotted and with a small erasure, isolated spotting elsewhere, generally a very good clean copy. Seller Inventory # ABE-13421418946
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