Gefühllose Aufklärung. Anaisthesis oder die Unempfindlichkeit im Zeitalter der Aufklärung

In a fascinating contribution, Bernd Hüppauf investigates the role of desensitization in scientific experiments on frogs in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, concentrating on issues such as the ethical ramifications of animal experimentation, the similarity or difference between human beings and laboratory animals, the role of empathy or distance in the scientific observer, and the cultural meaning of frogs as demonic, magical creatures or as popular experimental objects. A particularly productive version of Unempfindlichkeit in mid-eighteenth-century sentimental literature has been the willful appropriation of sentimental language and nonverbal communication by characters with ulterior motives, demonstrating the dangers inherent in the semantic code of sentimentalism. Since the code can be learned, it can also be used disingenuously to simulate inauthentic sentimental friendship or love.