Article/Publication Details

Fontenelle’s Éloges des académiciens: Creating the Scientific Persona

(Original title: Fontenelle’s Éloges des académiciens: Creating the Scientific Persona)
Filozofia, 2024, vol. 79, No 10, pp. 1097 - 1110.
File to download: PDF
BibTex EndNote Tagged EndNote XML RIS
In his Éloges des académiciens, French philosopher Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657 – 1757) used various strategies to build the credibility of scientists. In recent publications on the history of science, the concept of persona has been fruitfully explored. In this article, I focus on the construction of the scientific persona in Fontenelle’s Éloges, concentrating on the communication skills that scientists had to develop in order to advance new scientific discoveries. In what ways did Fontenelle rely on traditional rhetorical strategies to formulate and present a new scientific persona? How did the strategy of his Éloges relate to the notion of sociabilité and the social context of the Académie des sciences?

Filozofia - current issue

Cartwright, N. Reliability Trumps Truth
Abstract: This paper argues that reliability is a better desideratum for scientific claims than is truth as soon as we focus on ‘helping to change the world (for the better)’ as a central aim...
Cernea, M.V. Causalism versus Propensionism in the Philosophy of Biology: A Case of Philosophical Underdetermination?
Abstract: This paper has two objectives: (1) to define philosophical underdetermination in contrast with the usual empirical underdetermination that has been invoked by so many philosophers of...
Pichová, D. Fontenelle’s Éloges des académiciens: Creating the Scientific Persona
Abstract: In his Éloges des académiciens, French philosopher Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657 – 1757) used various strategies to build the credibility of scientists. In recent...
Thümmel, J. The Return to the Original Unity as a Historical Perspective in H. von Kleist
Abstract: Around 1800, German philosophy and literature frequently discussed the topic of history. This study examines, from a philosophical perspective, the structure of history as presented...
Koubová, A. Which Resilience? Thinking Democratic Subjectivity in the Polycrisis
Abstract: In the context of the current polycrisis, Andreas Reckwitz suggests that instead of emphasizing progress, Western liberal democracies should cultivate resilience. The question is:...
Lánský, O. Resilience as a Methodological Challenge for Axel Honneth’s Critical Theory
Abstract: The objective of the study is to examine the methodological challenges that the concept of resilience presents to Axel Honneth’s social theory as a representative of contemporary...
Eiríksdóttir, L. - Pallas, J. Practicing Uncertainty as Resilience
Abstract: Drawing on the pandemic experiences of Swedish welfare professionals and the philosophies of Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil, Jonna Bornemark, and Isabelle Stengers, this paper argues for...
Unger, M. - Koubová, A. The Emerging Science of Multisystemic Resilience: Trade-offs and Transformations in Contexts of Adversity
Abstract: This paper explores the concept of resilience as much more than a personal capacity to overcome adversity. Using reflections from ontology, ethics and epistemology, this paper offers...
Raška, Š. Between Dewey, Social Movements and Critical Philosophy
Abstract: This review study deals with the 2021 book by the Spanish philosopher Justo Serrano Zamora Democratization and Struggles against Injustice: A Pragmatist Approach to the Epistemic...
Dupkala, R. “Legacy of Ideas” as a Historical-Philosophical Issue (In Honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of the Slovak Philosopher Ján Bodnár)
Abstract: This article analyzes and interprets the Slovak philosopher Ján Bodnár’s contributions to the research regarding the history of both global and Slovak philosophy. Bodnár’s published...
more -->

Filozofia - previous issue

Charlesworth, S. Customary Morality and the Concept of Environmental Citizenship
Abstract: Whatever the nature of the contemporary climate crisis, its status has become an aspect of global politics. Whether the nature of this necessity is natural or political is the...
Boteva-Richter, B. Migration and Environment or about the Human as Climatic Being: Tetsurō Watsuji’s Dialectical Concept and How It Can Be Applied to the Issue of Migration
Abstract: The interaction between migration and the environment is essential, but it is not usually the focus of philosophical reflection. In this article, the author explores the nexus of...
Mendes, J.Ribeiro The Environmental Toll of Digital Technologies
Abstract: his study delves into the complex connection between digital technologies and environmental sustainability in the face of the worsening climate crisis. It presents two different...
Önkal, G. Reconsidering the Paradigm Shift from Environmental Philosophy to Global Environmentalisms
Abstract: The Earth has arrived at such a point that the speed of human change has had effects that are now irreversible. This picture tells us that the crises in nature are not the crises of...
Cottingham, J. The Human Being as ‘Compound’: Aquinas versus Descartes on Human Nature
Abstract: The intuitively right answer to the question ‘What am I?’ is not ‘an incorporeal spirit’, but ‘a human being’. Aquinas reflects this common-sense view when he says that ‘the human is...
Vydrová, J. Approaches to historicity in phenomenology: the Czechoslovak experience
Abstract: In the paper I examine selected local phenomena related to the history of phenomenology in Central-Eastern Europe and especially in the former Czechoslovakia during the communist...
Šedo, M. The complicated relationship between the philosophy of Claude Romano and Martin Heidegger
Abstract: The study attempts to interpret the work of the French phenomenologist Claude Romano in the context of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. The text tries to point out the differences...
more -->

Contact

Institute of Philosophy SAS, v.v.i.
Klemensova 19
811 09 Bratislava 1
Slovak Republic
Tel.: +4212 5292 1215
E-mail: sekretariat.fiu@savba.sk
Home page

Address for correspondence:

Filozofický ústav SAV, v. v. i.
P. O. Box 3364
813 64 Bratislava
Slovak Republic

Journal Filozofia

Institute of Philosophy SAS, v.v.i.
Filozofia Editorial Office
Klemensova 19
811 09 Bratislava 1
Slovak Republic
Tel.: +4212 5292 1215
E-mail: redakcia.filozofia@savba.sk
Home page

Address for correspondence:

Filozofický ústav SAV, v. v. i.
Filozofia Editorial Office
P. O. Box 3364
813 64 Bratislava
Slovak Republic

Journal Organon F

Institute of Philosophy SAS, v.v.i.
Organon F Editorial Office
Klemensova 19
811 09 Bratislava 1
Slovak Republic
Tel.: +4212 5292 1215
E-mail: organonf@gmail.com
Home page

Address for correspondence:

Filozofický ústav SAV, v. v. i.
Organon F Editorial Office
P. O. Box 3364
813 64 Bratislava
Slovak Republic

Links

Slovak Academy of Sciences
Slovak Philosophical Association
Department of Philosophy and History of Philosophy, Comenius University
Institute of Philosophy, Prague
FISP