| Titre | Ces plantes qui sentent et qui pensent. Une autre histoire de la nature au XVIIIe siècle | |
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| Auteur | Jan Synowiecki | |
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Revue | Revue historique |
| Numéro | no 694, avril 2020 | |
| Page | 73-104 | |
| Résumé |
Cet article propose, dans la lignée du tournant anthropologique actuel en histoire, de relire à nouveaux frais les principaux textes de la philosophie de la nature du XVIIIe siècle portant sur la sensibilité des plantes pour montrer que, loin d'avoir consacré la séparation entre nature et culture, les Lumières ont tenté de cartographier un monde commun entre humains et non-humains. Les débats sur la sensibilité des plantes ont permis de repenser la théorie de l'échelle des êtres et, surtout, la place de l'Homme dans les hiérarchies ontologiques. Ces discussions n'ont pas seulement été l'apanage des naturalistes et des savants, mais ont animé la sphère publique tout au long du siècle. Nous proposons donc de nous interroger sur les modalités de la circulation de ces débats, dans un contexte d'engouement pour les questions liées à l'histoire naturelle et, plus particulièrement, à la botanique. Source : Éditeur (via Cairn.info) |
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| Résumé anglais |
This article proposes, in line with the current anthropological turn in history, to re-read at new expense the main texts of eighteenth-century philosophy of nature on the sensitivity of plants to show that, far from having established the separation between nature and culture, the enlightenment has attempted to map a common world between humans and non-humans. The debates on the sensitivity of plants have made it possible to rethink the theory of the scale of beings and, above all, the place of man in ontological hierarchies. These discussions were not only the prerogative of naturalists and scientists, but also animated the public sphere throughout the century. We therefore propose to question the modalities of the circulation of these debates, in a context of enthusiasm for questions related to natural history and, more particularly, to botany. The first part of the article puts into context the philosophical and naturalistic debates around the sensitivity of plants and, more particularly, of the sensitivity. It recalls the opposing points of view around the notion of irritability, developed by Albrecht von Haller, and then develops the epistemological positions of certain philosophers and materialist naturalists such as Charles Bonnet and Jean-Baptiste Robinet. The re-reading of the theory of the scale of beings, where the living would decline in degrees of perfection, seems to know a new fortune in the eighteenth century, reflecting the desire to rethink the place of plants in the hierarchy of beings. The second part of this research looks at experiments carried out on sensitive plants and shows how the questions raised by these plants have circulated in the Europe of science, in particular between France and England. The scientists then try to subject these plants to the contact of etching, the spirit of wine and sulphur vapours. These experiments are part of the learned context of a search for a better understanding of the role of air on the vital movements of plants. Newspapers, gazettes and posters have greatly contributed to catalysing the dissemination of these debates on plant sensitivity. The third part of the article reveals the implications of controversies on plant susceptibility. Recognizing the irritability or sensitivity of plants was one thing. Admitting a specific form of intelligence to the plant world and attributing the movements of plants to the will was another. Starting from these rich debates, the fourth part considers the displacements of the anthropological view of the lights on nature. The sensitivity of plants was only one of many discussions about the links that guaranteed the continuity of nature and caused man to lose part of his supremacy. While alchemy was not systematically denounced as an epistemological obstacle, the question of plant spirits remained, for example, a good indicator of the blurred boundaries between the scientific and the occult, legitimate and illegitimate knowledge, as well as between the natural and the supernatural. Source : Éditeur (via Cairn.info) |
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| Article en ligne | http://www.cairn.info/article.php?ID_ARTICLE=RHIS_202_0073 |
