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The notion of instinct emerged in the modern zoological sense in the middle of the seventeenth century. Several positions existed, revealing a variety of epistemological options: while Montaigne and Descartes, for opposite reasons, tended to evacuate this notion, Pierre Chanet granted it maximum extension, within a mechanistic and finalistic framework. Engaged in a lively polemic against the latter, Cureau de la Chambre redefined instinct as innate and specialized knowledge, compatible with the thesis of animal rationality. His arguments would serve a more radical position, that of the libertins érudits, who hesitated between a complete assimilation of reason with instinct, and a full reversal of their traditional hierarchy.