Primrose Road

While researching dissection for a paper on Early Modern anxieties about not being able to encounter *everything* via sensory functions, I came across an interesting claim: Jonathan Sawday, author of one of the most influential texts on the topic of Early Modern dissection, notes that the idea that the human body is "designed" is very much specific to the late twentieth century.

Indeed, the historical specificity of biological "design" seems to run counter to some claims that the concept is as old as Abrahamic religion.