The quackery of scientists

La vidéo sera disponible prochainement.

Abstract

This session is devoted primarily to Johann Burckardt Mencken's De Charlataneria Eruditorum , published in Latin in 1715 in Leipzig, then translated into German in 1717 and into French in 1721, under the title La charlatanerie des savants . The work introduces us to a whole intellectual tradition of criticism, or rather self-criticism, of the sciences, a body of texts, often forgotten today, which tirelessly insisted on the abuses and ridicule of scientists, stigmatizing their irresistible propensity for charlatanism.

La charlatanerie des savants, a work that is both erudite and satirical, was produced in an academic setting, by a recognized scholar and editor of the Acta Eruditorum. Its aim was not to denounce impostors from outside the Republic of Letters, nor to criticize the scholarly world as a whole, but to moralize and standardize scholarly practices themselves, while defending the autonomy of knowledge from commercial dynamics and the book market.

To understand this strange object, let's situate it in two intellectual and editorial currents. Firstly, satirical encyclopedism, the ironic and facetious use of erudition to keep dogmatism, seriousness and pedantry at bay. Then there are the reflections on the " vices of knowledge ", which, particularly in the pietistic Lutheran context, helped to establish a moral economy for modern science, based on the secularization of values such as humility and moderation. The effect of these texts was to associate, almost inseparably, epistemological and social virtues.

Ultimately, criticism of scholarly charlatanism, under the guise of satire, serves as a self-regulating discourse aimed at imposing the normative principles of the Republic of Letters on the scholarly community.

Bibliography

• Henri-Corneille Agrippa de Nettesheim, Sur l'incertitude, vanité et abus des sciences, Paris, Durand, 1582 [1526].
• Johann Burkhard Mencke , De la charlatanerie des savants (The Hague: Jean van Duren, 1721 [1715]) .
• Henri Lewis Mencken (ed. and trans.), The charlatanerie of the Learned, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1937.

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