ABSTRACT
Born in the 1750s when the Enlightenment was well under way, Constantin Volney held moderate political views, was particularly interested in the Middle East, and had been a member of the Estates General. Volney’s writing was certainly lucid – it displayed careful precision in its insistence on the scientific basis of morality. Like his fellow authors on morality and health, Volney used a variety of strategies to promote the gathering together of individuals into communities through organic bonds of responsibility – individual and collective well-being were fused together. Acts of classification locate individuals in categories of different levels of generality – species, families, orders, classes and so on, which, in Volney’s case, served to reinforce his point that individuals and collectives are part of the same system. Volney further stated that the principles of the law of nature as they relate to mankind are reducible to the single precept of self-preservation by seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.
