The Renaissance era can be defined by its anthropocentrism; that is, the circumscribed belief that human exceptionalism is what separates human from beasts. In Boehrer's analysis of the literary and philosophical landscape of the Early Modern Renaissance writers, he posited the principles that guided this belief: "humans are radically different from all other life, this difference renders humans as superior to the rest of earthly creation and that this superiority designates the natural world as an exploitable resource. " Humans were considered to be preeminent in society, second only to the divine and the rigid divide between man and beast formed the foundations of order within society. However, the assurance of the natural distinction between
