Perceiving animals

"Perceiving Animals argues that what is revealed in a wide range of writing from the early modern period is a recurring attempt to separate the human from the beast. Looking at the representation of the animal in law, religious writings, literary representation, science and political ideas, what emerges is a sense of the fragility of humanity, a sense of a species which always requires an external addition - property, civilisation, education, mastery of the natural world - to be fully human."--BOOK JACKET. "Texts by writers including Edward Coke, Ben Jonson, Francis Bacon and Richard Overton…