Author: Li Hongtu.
The historian Robert Darnton once said that from the elite who cheered Lavoisier's experiments in the Academy of Sciences to the Sunday idlers who spent 12 livres in a hot air balloon for a half-hour trip over the mill of Javelle in Paris, the French passionately pursued the greatest fashion of the decade before 1787 – science. (Hypnosis and the End of the French Enlightenment, published by Social Sciences Academic Press) Looking back at history, the popularization of science into fashion is due to the French Enlightenment thinkers of the 18th century. Indeed, when people talk about the French Enlightenment in the 18th century, one of the most prominent features is that the Enlightenment thinkers advocated reason and science, hoping to use the scientific spirit and scientific knowledge to dispel people's ignorance, superstition, religious belief and blind obedience, and use scientific knowledge to benefit society and make people happy.
When French philosophers in the 18th century were using the power of reason to explore science in search of truth, they were deeply influenced by Newtonian mechanics. Voltaire wrote the book "Newtonian Principles of Mechanics" to promote and defend Newton's theory. From this, they cut off the connection between religious theology and the real world, and regarded the entire universe, nature, and all life as mechanical beings governed by mechanics. In his book Man is a Machine, Ramettili repeatedly emphasized that everything in nature is like a mechanical system, including man himself, and the human body is like a clock, but this is a huge, extremely fine, and extremely ingenious clock, and if its gears of counting seconds do not stop, its gears of counting can still continue to turn and walk. Voltaire also believed that the universe was an orderly, rational object that had been arranged in order once and for all from the day of creation. In The System of Nature, Hall likens the whole of nature to a factory where products are made, and the finished product can be produced by the action of machinery, "Let us not add to nature the imaginary causes that exist only in our minds."
Previously, Europeans had always understood nature in terms of God's will and creation, but by the 18th century, nature had been freed from any connection with God and became an independent whole. Hall put it this way: Nature, in its broadest sense, is a great whole produced by different substances, different combinations, and different sets of motions that we see in the universe. This transcendent theological nature does not need the impetus of God to operate and evolve, nor does it attribute the ultimate impetus to God, as Newton did. Enlightenment thinkers agreed that nature itself contained the impetus for its movement. Hall said that motion is self-generating, self-growing, and self-accelerating within matter, and does not require the help of any external cause. If one asks, in matter, where does motion come from? We shall answer that it is derived from the same principle that it must move without end and beginning, for motion, like the extensibility, weight, shape, and so on, is the inevitable consequence of the existence, essence, and some primitive properties of matter.
In the process of the evolution of objects, it is from disorder to order, each species has found a space suitable for its own existence, and the world or nature has also formed a causal connection, becoming a system of identity, with order and law. Since nature has order and laws, people can use the power of reason to penetrate the complex nature, understand the laws of nature, and reveal the mysteries of nature, so as to transform and use nature. The philosophers of the Enlightenment in the 18th century expressed this belief with great optimism. In short, we can understand nature.
The thinkers of the Enlightenment in the 18th century not only accepted the principles of the natural sciences of the time, but also actively engaged in scientific research and **. Voltaire published Newton's Principles of Philosophy. Diderot wrote works on the principles of physiology. Montesquieu's early years were obsessed with scientific experiments, over physics and physiology. As a thinker and philant, Rousseau had a systematic study of botany, collected plants, and also corresponded with the botanist Linnaeus, and wrote the book "Botany". Ramettili himself was a doctor. Hall has also conducted research in many fields of natural science. As a naturalist, Bu Feng wrote the Natural History and was in charge of the Royal Botanic Gardens. The most typical is Lavoisier, who is known as the "father of modern chemistry". At first, his family wanted him to study law and become a lawyer, but he was obsessed with the natural sciences, especially scientific experiments. Later, Lavoisier carried out air combustion experiments in his laboratory, developed modern chemistry, and was himself elected a member of the Académie Française. It was under the guidance of reason, according to scientific understanding and principles, that these Enlightenment thinkers emphasized the movement, order, and laws of nature, with the aim of eliminating superstition and blind obedience, and promoting the great development of science. Because only in the progress of science can we better understand nature, use and transform nature, promote social progress, and bring happiness to mankind.
These Enlightenment thinkers were not only enthusiastic about exploring scientific principles, but also disseminated and promoted science to the public with full enthusiasm, hoping that people would think with scientific thinking, no longer superstitious and blindly obedient, but only believe in scientific truth. Lavoisier, for example, tried to prove his theory of combustion, and he conducted a public experiment by first placing a burning candle in a vial, which was quickly extinguished. Then a bird is put into a glass bottle, the lid is closed, and after a while the bird dies because it cannot breathe, which is known as the "Lavoisier bird test". Founded in 1777, with the support of these Enlightenment thinkers and scientists, Paris ** contributed to the creation of popular science in Paris with columns such as "Science", "Physics", "Chemistry", "Naturalism", "Botany" and "Medicine". As the contemporaries said, since the preference for science began to spread, the public has become fascinated by physics, natural history, and chemistry, not only paying attention to the progress of these disciplines, but also genuinely engaged in research. The public flocks to attend classes, get educated, can't wait to read books, and warmly welcomes everything that has to do with the human mind. Wealthy people almost every home has instruments suitable for these useful sciences. Messier also said at the time that he found that Parisians' passion for science had overridden their previous interest in literature and art. It is also because these Enlightenment thinkers lived mainly in Paris and their scientific activities were carried out in Paris, thus making Paris the center of Enlightenment thought and the capital of science and technology.
In order to promote scientific knowledge to the public, Diderot accepted the publisher's invitation and decided to compile the "Encyclopedia", and named this book "Encyclopedia or Dictionary of Science, Arts and Crafts". To this end, he writes in the preface to the Encyclopedia: "Our main aim is to collect all the discoveries of past epochs. While not violating this basic objective, we believe that the new knowledge contributed by these large volumes of ancient knowledge is also valuable. Let us imagine that the seeds of a revolution may grow in some unknown part of the earth, or quietly sprout in the center of some civilized country, and it will explode in the future, destroying cities, disintegrating countries, and plunging the world into ignorance and darkness again. But as long as the book is preserved intact, everything can be saved. ”
To this end, Diderot invited the philosopher and mathematician d'Alembert as associate editor, and also invited many like-minded Enlightenment thinkers such as Hall and Elvis to participate in the compilation of the book. In this way, with Diderot as the center, an "encyclopedic school" was formed around the compilation of the Encyclopédie. In 1751, the first volume of the Encyclopédie was published, and the publication of this book was difficult, not only was Diderot imprisoned, but his manuscript was also in danger of being confiscated and destroyed. After the publication of the first volume, the publication of the second volume is forbidden, and the manuscript is to be confiscated. At this critical moment, Marzebble, who was in charge of the censorship of books and newspapers, told Diderot to leave the manuscript in his home. Diderot's daughter wrote: "Monsieur Marzebble said, 'If you leave the manuscript in my house, no one will raid it.'" In fact, my father sent half of his study to the house of the man who ordered the raid. It was through painstaking efforts that by 1780 all 35 volumes of the Encyclopedia had been published. Engels once said of Diderot: "If there is anyone who gave his whole life for 'zeal for truth and justice,' then Diderot, for example, is such a man." ”
It was under the impetus of these Enlightenment thinkers that science and reason became the new fashion, the new zeitgeist. As Robert Darnton recounts in his book, in 1784, in an aerostatic experiment with a balloon flight, it was believed that if man understood and mastered the rational capacity of the laws of nature, he could approach the gods. (Li Hongtu).
*: Wen Wei Po.