Naturwissenschaftliche Auffassung des Menschen, symbolische Gesellschaftsordnung und geschlechtlich codierte Moralphysiologie in der saint-simonistischen Bewegung um 1830

Abstract

In France around 1830 the significant rise of natural sciences and comparative anatomy legitimated a new moral physiology to which the Saint-Simonians, a political religious movement, referred. They assimilated the scientific discourse on gender dimorphism, in particular that of Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772–1844), Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1805–1861) and Claude François Lallemand (1790–1853). At the same time they made recourse to mystical theological arguments on gender difference, arguments which had contributed to a sacralisation of the female and the private sphere. The article focuses on the interrelation between scientific knowledge order and gender order in the Saint-Simonian discourse, exploring its contribution to the development of the modern understanding of gender relations.