Charles-Georges Le Roy

Charles Georges Leroy ( born January 22, 1723 in Paris, † November 11, 1789 ) was a French writer, encyclopedist and naturalist during the Age of Enlightenment and author of one of the first books about the behavior of animals.

Life and work

Charles Georges Leroy was a lieutenant in the royal hunts, lieutenant of the chasses royales. He was a friend of the encyclopedist Denis Diderot, Jean -Baptiste le Rond d' Alembert and Holbach. He regularly visited the salon of Paul Henri Thiry d' Holbach, the Coterie holbachique ( " Holbach'sche clique "). This group of people who were close to the Enlightenment (see also thinkers of the Enlightenment ), twice a week regularly met for dinner at Holbach to discuss various topics in the free atmosphere. His former residence was in the Rue Royale Saint -Roch; Today this road is Rue de Moulins.

Le Roy defended the positions of Claude Adrien Helvetius. In particular, the materialist and sensualist views found his popularity, religion critical passages he qualified, however.

He was told after having an affair with Geneviève Basile Suzanne d' Holbach ( 1728-1754 ). So they should have gotten to promote their health, the recommendation to ride out regularly. Charles- Georges Le Roy offered himself as companion; he knew but as a lieutenant in the royal hunting all the way in the royal park. From Madame de Pompadour's beauty, he was fascinated. He wrote an elegy over her eyes: her eyes had a peculiar charm, perhaps because it was so hard to decide what color they were; neither a dark hard gloss nor were there the blue eyes dreamy gentleness, yet they were gray. It had been an eye- specific refinement.

Under the pseudonym physicien de Nuremberg ( German: Nürnberg from the doctor ) Le Roy began with the publication of treatises on the behavior and sensitivity of animals whose final version in 1764 appeared in the Encyclopédie méthodique.

Works (selection)

• Philosophiques Lettres sur l' intelligence et la perfectibilté des animaux, avec quelques lettres sur l' homme. Paris ( 1802)
• L' intelligence des animaux. Ibis Press. (ISBN 2-910728-54-4 )
• Instinct des animaux. Méthodique From the Encyclopédie.