Masculine Knowledge, the Public Good, and the Scientific Household of Réaumur.
Abstract
In
the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris (founded 1666), expressions of a
masculine culture of science echoed contemporary language used to
articulate the aristocracy's value to crown and state--even though the
academy was not an aristocratic institution as such. In the eighteenth
century, the pursuit of science became a new form of manly service to
the crown, often described in terms of useful knowledge and benefit to
the public good [le bien public]. This article explores the connection
of academic scientific knowledge to the domestic spaces where it was
made and, in particular, to the household of R.-A. Ferchault de Réaumur,
an exemplary academician. Although Réaumur had neither wife nor
children, a complex net of affective ties, some of them familial, linked
the members of the household, which accommodated women (the artist
Hélène Dumoustier and her female relatives) as well as men (a series of
assistants, many of whom eventually entered the academy). As head of
this dynamic household, Réaumur produced not only scientific results but
also future academicians.
