Anatomy of Passions

With this book, François Delaporte, Professor of Philosophy of Sciences at the Université de Picardie Jules-Verne in Amiens, carries on with his thorough and convincing articulation of history and epistemology. The present study focuses on the role of Duchenne de Boulogne (1806–75), a French doctor who dedicated a great part of his working life to the study of facial expressions and whose major publication Mécanisme de la physiologie humaine (1862) features at the start of Delaporte's book. In this work, Duchenne de Boulogne claimed that the use of electrotherapy allowed the exploration of facial myology. Also, and more importantly, he defended a new theory on the interpretation of facial expressions, mainly based on the assumption that muscular determinism was a good instrument to decipher and differentiate real, spontaneous expressions from fakes—that is premeditated ones: for example, the real expression of joy as opposed to the fake expression of joy. Duchenne sought to define mimicry and the expression of feelings organically and in doing so, he inscribed himself in the traditional research movement exploring the expression of passions, as did Charles Darwin for example. Here, Delaporte highlights the originality of Duchenne as compared to Darwin and his predecessors such as J. K. Lavater, author of a book on physiognomy. Duchenne's originality lies also in his use of photography. We learn that Duchenne's work was presented at the Paris art school (Ecole des Beaux Arts) and that it raised much interest and had some impact on the way paintings and drawings were executed. The Professor of Anatomy, Mathias Duval, a close reader of Charles Darwin, was convinced of the possible cross-fertilization between art and science. This is why he invited Duchenne to teach some courses at this school. Delaporte's merit is that he is able to reconstitute Duchenne itinerary and that he contributes to the resuscitation of the long forgotten relationship between medicine and art

Anecdote · Art · Art history · Expression (computer science · Literature · Originality · Painting · Passions · Physiognomy · Sociology · History of Medicine Studies · History of Science and Medicine · Neurology and Historical Studies · Psychology · Philosophy