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Louise Seaward, The Idea of the Sciences in the Enlightenment: A Reinterpretation, French History, Volume 29, Issue 2, June 2015, Pages 255–256, https://doi.org/10.1093/fh/crv023
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Extract
Adkins’ short book draws upon his doctoral thesis and traces the link between the scientific revolution and the development of the Enlightenment in late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France. He argues that the idea of the moral utility of the natural sciences played a critical role in the elaboration of the progressive elements of Enlightenment thought. The focus here is on discourses expressed within the Académie des sciences in Paris. Adkins analyses the writings and approach of three of the Academy’s secretaries: Samuel Sorbière (who led a precursor to the formal Academy), Bernard de Fontenelle and the marquis de Condorcet. The study commences in 1663 and stretches until the death of Condorcet in March 1794, a few months after the Académie was shut down by the revolutionary government.
Adkins claims that a revival of interest in Stoic philosophy in mid sixteenth-century France encouraged thinkers to take a sceptical and rational view of the emergence of scientific thought and experiment in the years that followed. This mind-set helped to crystallize the notion that the sciences were morally enlightening. The men scrutinized by Adkins all promoted the idea that the philosophical spirit of the scientific revolution should be an impetus for practical government reforms. This discourse also had a strong social component. These intellectuals saw themselves as esprits supérieurs and felt that their knowledge of the sciences gave them a moral obligation to advocate improvements in society and politics.
