Progress and Reaction in the Encyclopédie : scientific and philosophical controversies over the established doctrines

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K00111
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 01040:History of thought-related
• Research Institution: Aoyama Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: Ida Hisashi 青山学院大学, 文学部, 教授 (10339517)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 百科全書 / 啓蒙思想 / 科学史 / 哲学史 / 進歩主義 / アリストテレス主義 / デカルト主義 / ニュートン主義

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the present research, we tried to demonstrate by positive facts and documents how the history of the relationships among influential schools of thought, such as Aristotelianism, Cartesianism, and Newtonianism, which competed for the status of official doctrine from the late 17th to the early 18th century, was rewritten in the scientific and philosophical articles of the "Encyclopedie" as the "history of the progress of science and philosophy" by the ideology of the Encyclopedistes.
This was achieved through various themes, such as Aristotelianism as a legitimate discourse under the censorship, Cartesianism as a promoter of the "new philosophy" exploited as an auxiliary of Enlightenment, the criteria for certifying Diderot's unsigned articles in the "Encyclopedie," the concept of demonstration recurring in the "Encyclopedie" and it's role in the Enlightenment view of science.

Free Research Field

18世紀フランス思想、啓蒙思想

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

『百科全書』がアリストテレス主義、デカルト主義、ニュートン主義といった既存の哲学体系を啓蒙主義的・世俗主義的な科学観によって、いかに世俗化が進行する近代における学問と科学の進歩の歴史に取り込み、百科全書派の進歩主義的な学芸観の正当性を同時代および後世の読者・公論にアピールしようとしたかを実証的に論じた本研究は、一見客観的に見える科学史・哲学史のイデオロギー的性格を浮き彫りにするとともに、我々現代人がいかに啓蒙主義をルーツとする近代の進歩主義的な科学観・哲学観の影響を受けているかを改めて教えてくれる点で、学術的・社会的意義が大きい。