Benoit de Maillet et l'origine de la vie dans la mer

The doctrine that all living beings originate from the sea, upheld in the Telliamed, is based on the scientific knowledges of the early 18th century. Maillet also assimilates the errores of the sciences. On the other hand, Maillet uses unreliable stories and testimonies to support his theory, but he applies the rules of a strict criticism to them. The spirit of the author of Telliamed also shows him to be a man of his time : a great many highly estimed contemporary philosophers have believed the existence of seamen. The roots of this theory are found in the conviction that we ignore the mecanism and the laws which regulate the productions of nature

Conviction · Doctrine · Theology · Historical and Literary Studies · Law · Philosophy