1998 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
THE IDEA OF PROGRESS IN MODERN EUROPE
| Project/Area Number |
08610395
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
History of Europe and America
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| Research Institution | MEIJI UNIVERSITY |
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Principal Investigator |
MIYAKE Masaki Meiji Univ./School of Political Science and Economics, /Prof, 政治経済学部, 教授 (50078284)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1996 – 1998
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| Keywords | golden age / Fontenelle / Quarrel between the Ancients and Modems / Pascal / Renaissance / authority / environmental pollution / millenarianism |
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| Research Abstract |
To establish the idea of progress, it was indispensable to overcome the pessimistic view of history, which Insisted among others that the present age was alwaysinferior to the golden age in the past, such as the age of Greek and Roman antiquity represented for example by the reign of Augustus in Rome. In Europe, an attempt to overcome such pessimism was made by the "Modems" in the "Quarrel betweenthe Ancients and Moderns", which was fought mainly in the French literary circles in the seventeenth century. The leading figures among the "Moderns" were Charles Perrault and Fontenelle. Perrault began the controvercyagainst Boileau, La Fontaine etc. in 1687. Throughout the quarrel it was Fontenelle's writing which contributed the most to the victory of the "Moderns". So I have fully analyzed Fontenelle's work "Digression surles Anciens et Modernes" (1688). The analogy between this work and Pacal's unpublished article "Preface pourIa traite du vide"isimpressive for m Both Fontenell and Pascal believed in the eternal progress of the human spirit. This quarrel was a step necessary for the Europeans to get rid of the "intellectual yoke of the Renaissance" (J.B.Bury). The Renaissance in Italyevoked the cult of the ancient geniuses like Aristotle. There was a danger that they might b come the absolute and unsurmountable authority. It was against this authority that both Fontenelle and Pascal fought. The for those days astonishingdiscoveries of Newton, Boyle, and Huygens butressed the idea of progress in the later part of the seventeenth century. Today we are rather sceptical about the progress of technology, which is producing environmental pollution. lt is also interesting to confirm that between the idea of progress and millenarianism based on the tradition of "St. John's Revelations" there exists a strange similarity.
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Research Products
(4 results)
