Jean-Jacques Rousseau vitaliste : La moralisation de l’hygiène médicale entre régime diététique et éthique alimentaire

Nuncius ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-109
Author(s):  
Marco Menin
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Medical Literature ◽  
Objective Evaluation ◽  
Important Influence ◽  
Literary Production ◽  
Moral Purpose ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Medical Hygiene

The historiographical prejudice that sees in Jean-Jacques Rousseau an implacable opponent of scientific knowledge has long prevented an objective evaluation of the important influence that medical thought exerted over his philosophy. The aim of this paper is to show not only Rousseau’s familiarity with the most important expressions of eighteenth-century medical literature, but also his willingness to incorporate some medical suggestions in his philosophical and literary production. In the first part of this article, I try to show how Rousseau’s sensibility theory presupposes precise medical ideals, related to Montpellier School of vitalism. In the second part, I stress how Rousseau’s philosophy of alimentation (which has clear anthropological and political implications) can be regarded as a genuine application of an ambition typical of vitalism : to use medical hygiene, also and above all, for moral purpose.

“The pleasure of receiving your favour”

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Valle
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
North America ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Atlantic World ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Central Concept

The article deals with correspondence in natural history in the eighteenth century between England and North America. The corpus discussed consists of correspondence between John Bartram and Peter Collinson, and between Alexander Garden and John Ellis. The approach used in the study is qualitative and rhetorical; the main point considered is how the letters construct scientific centre and periphery in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world. A central concept is the “colonial exchange”, whereby “raw materials” from the colonies — in this case plant and animal specimens, along with proposed identifications and names — are exchanged for “finished products”, in this case codified scientific knowledge contained in publications.

scholarly journals Rational Creatures and Free Citizens: The Language of Politics in the Eighteenth‑Century Debate on Women

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-47
Author(s):  
Susan E. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Potential Threat ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Political Relationships ◽  
Unifying Principles ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Condition Of Women ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract This paper examines the intersection between the debate on women and the wider political debates of late eighteenth-century England. During this period the meaning of concepts such as liberty, equality, and rights was contested not only with regard to political relationships among men, but also as they applied to civil and domestic relationships between men and women. The language of politics encouraged the definition of women's oppression in terms of the unrepresentative nature of authority exercised by men. The values of rationality, equality, and independence espoused by radicals in the debate on women were part of a larger conception of virtue, which carried with it political as well as moral implications. These political implications came to the fore in the conservative response. Conservatives' ideas on women were part of a larger vision of social and political order in which duty, obedience, and dependence operated as the unifying principles. Within this framework, radical proposals for a more egalitarian family structure were viewed as a potential threat to political order. At the heart of this debate lay not only a dispute regarding the condition of women, but also a struggle between two conflicting visions of the ideal society.

scholarly journals Diálogos interdisciplinares para uma agenda socioambiental: breve inventário do debate sobre ciência, sociedade e natureza

2000 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimas FLORIANI
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Belief System ◽  
The Other ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Instrumental Reason ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The World ◽  
Interdisciplinary Knowledge ◽  
Nature And Society

O debate sobre ciência, sociedade e natureza, na perspectiva da construção de um novo conhecimento interdisciplinar, exige uma reflexão crítica sobre os fundamentos da racionalidade científica moderna. Por outro lado, a crítica que se faz ao conhecimento científico, coincide com a crítica ao fracionamento que se faz entre sociedade e natureza, com todas as suas implicações sócio-culturais e políticas. Razão instrumental e sistema de crenças andam juntos. Daí que uma crítica profunda sobre a racionalidade e as práticas científicas, no âmbito da relação sociedade-natureza, deve buscar reaproximar os saberes disciplinares, principalmente os das ciências da vida, da natureza e da sociedade. Esse diálogo entre saberes científicos não pode, entretanto, excluir as outras formas de conhecimento do mundo, da natureza e das sociedades. ABSTRACT The debate on science, nature and society, from the perspective of the construction of a new interdisciplinary knowledge, requires critical refelctions on the bases of modern scientific rationality. On the other hand, the critique of scientific knowledge that has been made coincides with the critique of the division between society and nature, with all of its socio-cultural and political implications. Instrumental reason and belief system develop together. Therefore, a deep critique of rationality and scientific practices, from the perspective of the societynature relationship, should seek to bring the knowledge that has been separated into different disciplines closer together again, especially with regard to the life sciences, that is, those of nature and society. This dialogue between fields of scientific knowledge should not, at the same time, exclude other forms of knowing the world, nature and society.

What happened to the growth spurt of nineteenth-century adolescents? An essay on the history of a scientific omission

1990 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 767-771 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Vandereycken ◽  
Ron Van Deth
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Medical Literature ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Growth Spurt ◽  
Pubertal Growth Spurt ◽  
Pubertal Growth ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

SynopsisIt is common knowledge that puberty is characterized, among other phenomena, by a striking growth spurt. An exploration of the medical literature from previous centuries shows, however, that this feature of adolescence has attracted surprisingly little attention. Although the pubertal growth spurt was known to eighteenth-century physicians, it was neglected for about a century. The influential Belgian scientist Quetelet demonstrated a remarkable scotoma towards the phenomenon. It was only after his death in 1874 that the relationship between puberty and growth spurt became a scientifically established and recognized fact.

scholarly journals The officers of the Society (1662-1860)

1940 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-140 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Administrative Staff ◽  
Natural Knowledge ◽  
Routine Work ◽  
Current Business

A well-planned administration is indispensable for any new institution if it is to deal with its finances and membership, to record the communications received and to register correspondence with other bodies of like interests efficiently. With aims so wide in scope as the ‘Improvement of Natural Knowledge’ the amount of routine work was bound to be large even in the Society’s early days and to increase rapidly, but the provision of an adequate administrative staff to deal with it was for a good many years more than the Royal Society’s meagre resources could afford. Its officers as well as the salaried staff were overworked, and it was not until the early part of the eighteenth century that a satisfactory system had been gradually developed. For two centuries the Fellowship consisted for the greater part of men who had no scientific knowledge nor any real interest in the advancement of science so that for many years, in fact until after 1847, nearly two-thirds of the members of the Council belonged to this group. It was left for the most part to the officers, if they were scientific men, to see that the claims of science were not overlooked. In the Charters it is laid down that the President, the Treasurer and the two Secretaries are the Officers of the Society, and that they are to be elected by the Fellows at each Anniversary Meeting when the Council for the coming twelve-month is chosen. To them is entrusted the execution of the Society’s policy and such action as may be decided upon by the Council from time to time, or by the Fellows at their meetings. They had therefore to keep in close touch with the current business of the Society, to report upon it to the Council and to assist that body in arriving at their decisions. The Council might delegate to them power to deal with various matters, and occasions arose from time to time when they had to act to the best of their own judgment, reporting to the Council at its next meeting how such situations had been dealt with.

Genius in France

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Jefferson
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Medical Literature ◽  
The Self ◽  
Full Account ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Realist Novels ◽  
History Of

This book spans three centuries to provide the first full account of the long and diverse history of genius in France. Exploring a wide range of examples from literature, philosophy, and history, as well as medicine, psychology, and journalism, the book examines the ways in which the idea of genius has been ceaselessly reflected on and redefined through its uses in these different contexts. The book traces its varying fortunes through the madness and imposture with which genius is often associated, and through the observations of those who determine its presence in others. The book considers the modern beginnings of genius in eighteenth-century aesthetics and the works of philosophes such as Diderot. It then investigates the nineteenth-century notion of national and collective genius, the self-appointed role of Romantic poets as misunderstood geniuses, the recurrent obsession with failed genius in the realist novels of writers like Balzac and Zola, the contested category of female genius, and the medical literature that viewed genius as a form of pathology. The book shows how twentieth-century views of genius narrowed through its association with IQ and child prodigies, and discusses the different ways major theorists—including Sartre, Barthes, Derrida, and Kristeva—have repudiated and subsequently revived the concept. The book brings a fresh approach to French intellectual and cultural history, and to the burgeoning field of genius studies.

The Literary Periodization of Eighteenth-Century France

PMLA ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifton Cherpack
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
French Literature ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Literary Production ◽  
Systematic Survey ◽  
The Enlightenment

Critical and historical investigations of eighteenth-century French literature have been hampered by inadequate and often irrelevant schemes of periodization. If, as has been claimed, the secular division itself is arbitrary and does not respect the realities of literary production, other principles of division, such as literary generations, have not seemed more realistic. As for the contested attempt to equate the eighteenth century with the Enlightenment, its effect on literary studies has been to stress unduly the literature of ideas, especially as produced by the outstanding philosophes. Attempts to elaborate a rationale for a rococo-style periodization have raised more problems than they have solved, and may lead to unproductive theoretical bickering. Logically, it is only a systematic survey of the literature itself in the light of literary tradition that will yield truly literary periodizations, and it is only when these have been achieved that we can meaningfully investigate literature's relationships with other aspects of what might as well be called, with due reservations, the eighteenth century.

Visible Absences: Inclusive Theatre in Contemporary Spain (Interview with Victoria Teijeiro and Isabel Rodes)

2019 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-292
Author(s):  
Esther Fernández
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Spanish Literature ◽  
World Health ◽  
Literary Production ◽  
Surrounding Environment ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Contemporary Spain ◽  
The Grotesque

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines disability, in very broad terms, as the difficulty an individual may have relating to his or her surrounding environment. Nonetheless, since the eighteenth century, Spanish literature has portrayed disability as a metaphor for deficiency, imperfection, monstrosity, disorder, and even excess. In this sense, the grotesque amputation suffered by the protagonist, Tristana, in Benito Pérez Galdós's famous homonymous novel written in 1892 can be interpreted as a settling of accounts of society with a woman who was too independent and intellectually ambitious for her time. Literary production became in that sense a reflection of a society that wove together a series of prejudices regarding disability, resulting in the stigmatization and invisibility of these individuals.

Some Factors in the Early Development of the Concepts of Power, Work and Energy

1967 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. S. L. Cardwell
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Development ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Newtonian Mechanics ◽  
End Products ◽  
Rational Mechanics ◽  
Work And Energy

Almost traditionally, it seems, accounts of the development of the concepts of work and energy have tended to describe them within the classical framework of Newtonian mechanics. They are seen as the end products of the celebrated vis-viva dispute in the eighteenth century: the outcome of a debate within the confines of the science of rational mechanics. I would like to suggest that this may be to take too narrow a view of the case. It is to project backwards our present specialist arrangement of scientific knowledge, our present divisions between the sciences, and to assume that past development was strictly guided by these divisions. And this is to make questionable historical and sociological assumptions.

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