A thinker from this country wrote about the lives and deaths of two chameleons that she was given by an ambassador in Alexandria in a work that presents a vitalist theory of animal life. Frederick the Great delivered a eulogy for a philosopher from this country who was sheltered by the Prussian court after publishing controversial ideas about the continuity between humans and animals. Mechanistic early modern philosophers from this country include the authors of Man a Machine and Syntagma Philosophicum, the latter of whom tried to reconcile Epicurean atomism with Christian philosophy. The “beast machine” doctrine was introduced by a philosopher from this country whose book Passions of the Soul presents the pineal gland as the seat of the soul. For 10 points, name this home country of René Descartes. ■END■
ANSWER: France [or Kingdom of France; or Royaume de France] (The first three philosophers are Mademoiselle de Scudéry, Julien Offray de la Mettrie, and Pierre Gassendi.)
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