Destin et desseins du vivant dans Les Fossiles de Louis Bouilhet

Abstract

In the poem Les Fossiles (1854), Louis Bouilhet tells the story of the evolution of life. Inspired by various naturalists, he imagines the emergence of life on Earth, the birth of species, and their extinction followed by the emergence of new forms of life. The destiny of humankind is subordinate to this law of nature: humans will be supplanted by more perfect beings. The purpose of this article is to consider the influence of Charles Bonnet's palingenetic philosophy on Bouilhet from the perspective of epistemocritical methodology, allowing the identification of epistemological transfers between the work of the naturalist and that of the poet.