2003 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Emergence and transformation of the "public" in France from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries
| Project/Area Number |
14510566
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
仏語・仏文学
|
|---|
| Research Institution | TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN STUDIES |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
MIZUBAYASHI Akira Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Department of French Studies, Professor, 外国語学部, 教授 (80183630)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2003
|
| Keywords | public / prive / public opinion / public space / Rousseau / Voltaire / social discourse / Rousseau. juge de Jean-Jacques |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
Our research has shown, through the lexical study of the noun "public", that a critical conception of the "public" in the modern meaning -as a whole of customers -existed already from the second half of the eighteenth century. We can say that Jean-Jacques Rousseau was the inventor of this conception. At the beginning, "public" as a noun meant "republic". But during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the civil society came to maturity, a very important semantic transformation occurred to this word; "public" received the modern meaning of "audience". From that moment on, the "public" has been considered as a whole of private persons using their reason in a critical way (Habermas). Voltaire marvellously represents this conception. As for Rousseau, he had an opposite conception to Voltaire's, an amazingly prophetic one.
We tried to examine Rousseau's critical position through two autobiographical works: Confessions and Dialogues, Rousseau juge de Jean-Jacques. I should add that I have achieved an electronic edition of Dialogues, Rousseau juge de Jean-Jacques.
|
Research Products
(6 results)
