<論文>「文芸共和国」の分断--学問の共同体における制度と個人

Abstract

This essay is a tentative reading of the history of early modern intellect as the social history of those who constituted the République des lettres. In its original conception, the Republic of letters was the imagined community of scholars whose membership was open to all erudites and savants regardless of nationality, field of activity or fame. This paper focuses on how interpersonal relationships functioned inside such communities and what was socially expected from an aspirant member of the Republic. Through the analysis of intellectual exchanges' modality and ethics, we will show how the République des lettres was an autonomous space where intellectuals were determining rules of conduct and scientific standards by and for themselves. Since Erasmus, the Republic's ideal form was thought to be a place where the scholars could find rest and sanctuary from the barbarity of a violent, uncivilized and unkind world that lied outside of its borders. The ideal of a motherland where knowledge was the ultimate end of association and where all citizens were equals -- differing only for the merit that the other consociates recognized them -- echoed in the words of one of the main heroes of the Republic of letters in its most glorious days, Pierre Bayle. Il ne s'agit point ici de Religion, il s'agit de Science: on doit donc mettre bas tous les termes qui divisent les hommes en différentes factions, & considérer seulement le point dans lequel il se réunissent, qui est la qualité d'Homme illustré dans la République des Lettres. En ce sens-là tous les Sçavans se doivent regarder comme frères, ou comme d'aussi bonne maison les uns que les autres All possible causes of division and partisanship had to be left aside in order to foster that augmentis scientiarum which, since Francis Bacon, had been the primary goal of scholarly association. From a structural point of view, this meant that the République des lettres had to be an inclusive and open space. New members were actively and continuously sought for. Finally, the Republic was based on a network of personal relationships and the institutional aspect was secondary in a reality in which private and public sphere were not clearly divided. Such ambiguity, together with the potentially unlimited inclusivity, made of the Republic of letters a diaphanous reality, whose centre and borders were not clearly definable. The entire hierarchy and structure of the relationships that constituted it appeared someway murky while a lack of an external authority capable of determining absolute positions and values caused an ongoing struggle for primacy among different factions. As the actual Republic of letters fell short from the expectations of the scholars when compared with the utopic ideal of a peaceful and impartial Respublica litteraria, new models of social aggregation among scholars emerged. Thus, the second part of the essay explores how the world of knowledge became institutional and part of a public sphere as defined by the culture of the new modern nation states. In such process, the international unity of the République des lettres disintegrated and new forms of relationship between scholars -- externally determined by the state authority -- were created.