La vidéo sera disponible prochainement.
14:30 to 15:30
Lecture
Every state has its charlatans
Antoine Lilti
14:30 to 15:30
Abstract
In the previous session, we hypothesized that the figure of the charlatan, in Enlightenment thought and culture, served to reflect changes in public space and scholarly authority. Today, we continue with a study of dictionaries and encyclopedias from the XVIIIthcentury to better understand the debates sparked by the terms " charlatan " and " charlatanerie ".
The Académie dictionary, in its first edition of 1694, defines a charlatan as a travelling salesman of remedies and an acrobat, then as a boastful doctor who promises to cure everything, but also, figuratively speaking, as a flatterer capable of seducing with fine words. In theEncyclopédie, Jaucourt and Diderot accentuate this broadening. The medical meaning is merely a " acception particulière " because " every state has its charlatans ". Quackery thus becomes an intellectual vice, like pedantry, defined by the desire to seduce and deceive the public by asserting illusory skills.
Voltaire goes even further. In Questions sur l'Encyclopédie, he describes intellectual life as a permanent competition and a theater where each person puts forward his or her " merchandise". Far from opposing philosophers and charlatans, he ironically denounces the quackery inherent in public life, the desire for celebrity and the commercial dynamics of the public arena. Chamfort joins him, noting in his Maximes :" Quand on veut éviter d'être charlatan, il faut fuir les tréteaux ; car si l'on y monte, on est bien forcé d'être charlatan, sans quoi l'assemblée vous jetette des pierres ".
Finally, we end this review with the article " charlatan " from the Encyclopédie méthodique (1789), which, while mocking the ridiculousness of " charlatanisme du bel esprit ", that of scholars and academics, focuses its attacks on the far more dangerous political charlatans, who create an alliance between irrationality and despotism. The discourse of the reforming and moderate Enlightenment called for state action to protect a public deemed credulous.
Bibliography
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- " Charlatan ", Dictionnaire universel, ed. Antoine Furetière, Reinier Leers, Amsterdam, volume 1, 1690.
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