BONNET, CHARLES. - Psychologist and naturalist, b. in Ginevra on 13 March 1720, d. there on 20 June 1793. A complex figure whose works reflect the influence of his scientific training and of the divergent philosophical tendencies then prevailing. B. in fact carried both Hartley’s associationism and Condillac’s sensationalism to very far-reaching conclusions. His doctrinal kinship with Leibniz is likewise undeniable in the theory of metamorphosis which B. calls palingenesis. As a naturalist, B. discovered the parthenogenesis of aphids.
Principal works: Essai de psychologie (London 1754); Considerations sur les corps organisés (2 vols., Amsterdam 1762); Contemplations de la nature (ibid. 1764-65); Palingenésie philosophique (Ginevra 1769); Recherches philosophiques sur les preuves du christianisme (ibid. 1669-1770). All are collected in the Œuvres complètes (10 vols., Neuchâtel 1779-83).