Cureau de la Chambre sulla conoscenza e il linguaggio degli animali

The early modernity pays much attention to the topic of animal knowledge and communication abilities, in the framework of more general issues concerning the 'uniqueness' of Man. Cureau de la Chambre belongs to the short list of thinkers (he was a physician imbued with relevant philosophical interests) who did not accept the dualistic paradigm from the Stoic tradition, newly re-discovered and elaborated by René Descartes, that excluded animals from the realm of conscience and (therefore also of) language. La Chambre's works on this point are taken into consideration and his particular kind of "aristotelianism" is discussed in some detail.