Buffon's new concept of history

This article raises the question of the meaning given by Buffon to the notion of history, through a reexamination of three aspects of a problem which has become traditional in a series of critical discussions: to what extent can Buffon's Histoire naturelle be considered as historical? This article aims to clarify Buffon's position by specifying the reasons for which his study of living beings cannot be considered as transformist or evolutionist, by showing that his work nevertheless constitutes a decisive milestone in a movement towards a historical understanding of the objects of natural sciences, and by highlighting the transformation of the very meaning of the concept of history in Buffon's texts. The gap between the Buffonian conception of the living world and that of inorganic nature, as well as the evolution of his thought from 1749 to 1778, cannot be underestimated.