<論説>ヴァーチュオーソと科学

Abstract

十七世紀後半から十八世紀初めにかけて、英国の科学者達は、ヴァーチュオーソと呼ばれ、自らもそうなのった。しかし、このことばは単なる「科学者」の意をこえて、さまざまのニュアンスを含む。その一つが、ヴァーチュオーソはジェントルマンと半ば同義である点である。ジェントルマン理念の主体たる貴族・上層ジェントリーと科学との関係は、絶対王政期の宮廷に開始する。そこで科学は、宮廷人の「体裁」として、初めてその教養の一つに数えられる。一方、地方ジェントリーの地方閑居は、宮廷的科学を継承して、科学への別の姿勢を産む。それが、娯楽・慰安としての科学の受容である。この二つの態度(とりわけ後者) が規定する、自己収束的で寡黙な科学の性格を、本稿ではヴァーチュオーソの科学と呼ぶ。ヴァーチュオーソの科学は、同時期に誕生したもう一つの理念、多産的で、協働による進歩を期するベイコニアニズムと、本来異質で、相容れるものではない。にもかかわらず両者の影響関係は否定できない。王政復古期の科学の二元性、ヴァーチュオーソという名辞の多義化はそうした異質のものの融合に起因している。

Scientists in England were called virtuosi in the late seventeenth-and early eighteenth centuries. What the word 'virtuoso' implied then, however, differs slightly but variously from what the word 'scientist' does now. The author presents here the wide range of cotemporary uses of the word and dichotomy of the meaning. It ranged from experimental philosophers to devoted collectors of natural trifles. Nevertheless, the word pertained exclusively to gentlemen-scholars. The author, then, looks at the scientific activities of Jacobean 'melancholic' gentlemen to set forth what were characterestic of the virtuosi's sciences. That is, first, the purpose of their activity was nothing but pastime. As a result, they did not have any idea of cooperation and progress. Secondly, though they adopted reading, experimenting and collecting as their methods, those experimentings were no more than repetitions of the experiments which they found in their books and the explanations of which had already been done. Besides, their collections were confined to natural curiosities and artificial ingenuities. Thirdly, their activity was always associated with social nobility. Finally, the author argues about the complicated relations between the sensibility of virtuoso and Baconianism, which was the most influetial outlook in those days. In spite of their apparent contradictions, they were virtually compatible both in individuals and in groups. The fact caused the later dichotomy of the meaning of the word 'virtuoso'.