Montaigne et la « vanité » des utopies

This article examines Montaigne’s contribution to the sixteenth-century European debate about the utopia as a form of political thinking concerned with the creation of a better society. It argues that Montaigne participates in that debate, as he does in others, by retreating to the margins. It explores the form this retreat takes in book III of the Essais. The suggestion is that, by retreating to the margins of political debate, the author creates a textual space open to a virtual community of friends, among them the author and the reader, who have in common a mode of free and frank discussion as a truth-seeking and quarrelsome “exercise of minds”. Montaigne is thus able to conduct an unresolved quarrel with others, and with himself, as he weighs in the balance the value–and vanity–of utopias.     

Qu’est-Ce Quela «Littérature Générale»? La Culture Lettrée au Prisme du Marché du Livre de la Première Moitié du XX e Siècle

The aim of this paper is to shed light on the importance, for cultural history, of a professional concept from the publishing worl, for example « general literature » - a concept which goes against most of the usual forms of classification and division of intellectual output. Through the use of an « indigenous » source from within the publishing domain such as the advertisement notices published in Bibliographie de la France, one can show the coherence of a wide domain which encompasses - but also widely surpasses - the boundaries of literature as commonly conceived. As one category of publishing output, general literature can be characterized during the first half of the XX ^th century by the use of the same material form the 12mo whose profound significance is the intention to reach a « wide educated audience ». Thus, it is by taking into account the structure of this output that, through such a domain as general literature, the publishing market allows the question of the actual existence and aspects of learned culture to be raised.     

« Vivre de sa Plume » Réflexions sur un topos de l’Auctorialité Moderne

What does it mean to « live by the pen »? The expression has often been invoked by historians advancing an account of progress in literary practices marked by the passage of writers from patronage to the marketplace; an account hoping to define authorial « modernity » with respect to an older model of the literary figure who is protected by nobility. Yet a careful examination shows that this progress towards economic autonomy based on the sale of works is hardly as self-evident as it has been assumed. This article thus studies the ambiguities of the historical account implicit in the idea of « living by the pen ». It then proposes a different approach, which considers this idea not as the reflection of a new professional reality, but as an element in a new rhetoric of self-presentation as intellectual. As a topos, the image designates and indeed, constitutes the social liberation of the author from nobility as well as his moral authority when his efforts to live off his writing inevitably fail yet he persists nonetheless to sacrifice his personal happiness for his art.     

Le trait d'union musical tiré par mersenne entre encyclopédie et rhétorique académique

This paper is a survey of Father Mersenne's views about the classification of sciences, its reasons and its practical consequences. Some emphasis is put on the interconnection between Mersenne's two major ideas about the practice of science: scientific research is an activity mostly devoted to religious apology and to the edification of the people. This religious concern allows him to resist two of the most influential philosophical streams of his time, scepticism and alchemy, which provide some of the major opposition to his works. We also show how an analogical kinship based on theological considerations and on the classification of sciences leads to the same kind of arguments shaping his views about arithmetic, language, and music. Finally, we focus on the connection between Mersenne's theses, especially about the nature and virtue of language and sound, and a more general discussion of the scientific status of music and language in the context of the blooming of academies.     

« Techno-Esthétique » de L’Économie Smithienne Valeur et Fonctionnalité des Objets dans L’Angleterre des Lumières

From The Theory of Moral Sentiments to his essay on The Nature of that Imitation Which Takes Place in What Are Called the Imitative Arts, Adam Smith offered a vision of aesthetics combining beauty and utility. An echo of exchange value as the “ability to buy other goods” — the “power” to organize and achieve one’s goals — his definition of beauty was premised on the “aptness” of things, that is, the fact that they were also useful. Sustained by the commodification of products, a kind of “techno-aesthetics” thus emerged in England in the 18^th century, one that implied designing, adapting, reducing and showcasing the means of production.     

La mobilité forcée des personnes utilisatrices de drogue par injection et inhalation en situation d'itinérance à Montréal

This article focuses on the various actors in the urban setting who contribute to the increase in the forced mobility of homeless injection drug users and crack smokers in Montréal, Canada. The objective is to analyze who these actors are and how they contribute to increasing this forced mobility from the perspective of homeless injection drug users and crack smokers in relation to three needs : basic needs, acquisition of financial resources, and drug use. One hundred and six semi-structured interviews were conducted among this population. The results indicate that various actors—police officers, community organization, peers, municipal administration, storekeepers, and residents—contribute to the forced mobility of this population in their daily activities. As for their needs, it is when they use drugs, sleep, or loiter that they are more likely to experience events of forced mobility. Police officers are by far the actors who contribute the most to this, often in a repressive way. The role of the municipality is also a determining factor in the daily activities of homeless injection drug users and crack smokers.     

«L’europe» 125e congrès national des sociétés historiques et scientifiques université de Lille III 10–15 avril 2000

Vie Scientifique

?L’europe? 125^e congrès national des sociétés historiques et scientifiques université de Lille III 10–15 avril 2000     

« Au bal masqué de l'amour,cavalier, cavalière,on danse toujours avec sa mère »: Ni toi ni moi de Camille Laurens,Adolphe de Benjamin Constant

Cet article étudie l'impossibilité de s'installer dans une relation amoureuse durable, sujet principal de ces deux romans du XIX^e et du XXI^e siècle: Adolphe (1816) de Benjamin Constant et Ni toi ni moi (2006) de Camille Laurens. Ni toi ni moi réfère massivement à la vie et à l'?uvre de Benjamin Constant, Adolphe étant son hypotexte déclaré. Dans l'« investigation » de la disparition mystérieuse de l'amour, pourquoi convoquer Benjamin Constant, et comment ? Dans cet article, je m'attache à examiner, dans une première partie, le « bricolage » dont relève toute forme d'hypertextualité (je me réfère aux travaux de Gérard Genette): sa part de jeu aussi bien que son caractère dysphorique. Je me propose d'étudier, dans une seconde partie, le thème de l'abandon, lié à la perte, à la séparation involontaire; je convoque, ce faisant, le concept de la « mère morte » théorisé par André Green.     

« <Emphasis Type="Italic">What is the best theory of generation</Emphasis>? » : Argumentation et débats d’étudiants en médecine à La Société Royale de médecine d’Édimbourg au dix-huitième siècle

This article proposes a different approach to the long generation controversy that divided naturalists in eighteenth-century Europe between those in favour of preformationism, on the one hand, and supporters of the theory of epigenesis on the other. This controversy has mostly been studied through the publications of the intellectual elite, that was constituted of medical doctors, natural historians, philosophers, and theologians. Rather than reviewing the ideas and antagonisms of the direct agents of the controversy, I will attempt to approach it from the margins. What is the legacy of a long-term controversy when it seems to be over? How was such an extended controversy perceived by contemporaries that would only have a fragmented access to quarrel? What is the role of scientific disputes in the education of doctors? I will address these questions by analyzing four essays written by medical students of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh.