Western Europeans first had to cofnront biological and cultural diversity with the voyages of discovery in the 16th century. The encounter with new species and exotic customs forced a reappraisal of the classical scientific systems. This led to the Scientific Revolution of the 18th century, instigated by Bacon and promoted by Descartes and Newton, who both attempted to explain the physical universe in terms of simple mechanical laws. English Deists and French "philosophes" tried to apply the "mechanical paradigm" to explain and control social and political phenomena. The "comparative method" was elaborated explicitly for the purpose of identifying natural (universal) law and religion. "Social contract" theory developed out of a contrasting "organic paradigm" to explain the origin of the state and to justify various contemporary political conditions. By the Enlightenment of the 18th century, philosophers believed in the universal applicability of natural laws. They believed that the world could be understood and perfected through the use of reason. Although anthropology as a distinct discipline did not emerge until the 19th century, it was firmly constructed in the liberal ideas of the 18th century Enlightenment.
Rowe, John Howland. 1965. The Renaissance Foundations of Anthropology. American Anthropologist 67:1-20 (reprinted, pp. 61-77 in Readings in the History of Anthropology, ed. by Regna Darnell. New York: Harper & Row. 1974) (CFAL: GN17 D35 - on reserve)
Hallowell, A. irving. 1965. The History of Anthropology as an Anthropological Problem. Jl. of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 1(1):24-38 (reprinted, pp. 304-321 in Readings in the History of Anthropology, ed. by Regna Darnell. new York: Harper & Row. 1974) (CFAL: GN17 D35)
Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondat. 1977. The spirit of laws. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press (orig. 1748) (Schwerin)
Ferguson, Adam. 1966. An essay on the history of civil society. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press (orig. 1767) (Schwerin)
Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. 1995. The Included Ape / States of Nature / Eating People, pp. 470-485 in Millenium. A history of the last thousand years. New York: Scribner (Schwerin)
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