⑥ Revolutionary Science▪On the politicization of science during the French Revolution

The French Revolution was the culmination of Enlightenment thinking. But rather than celebrating science, the revolutionaries suppressed ideas and killed the people that held them.

Jones, Steve

Revolutionary Science: Transformation and Turmoil in the Age of the Guillotine Book

2017, ISBN: 1681773090.

Links | BibTeX

@book{Jones2017,
title = {Revolutionary Science: Transformation and Turmoil in the Age of the Guillotine},
author = {Steve Jones},
url = {https://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Science-Transformation-Turmoil-Guillotine/dp/1681773090},
isbn = {1681773090},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-01-10},
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pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
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Israel, Jonathan

Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History of the French Revolution from The Rights of Man to Robespierre Book

2015, ISBN: 0691169713.

Links | BibTeX

@book{Israel2015,
title = {Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History of the French Revolution from The Rights of Man to Robespierre},
author = {Jonathan Israel},
url = {https://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Ideas-Intellectual-Revolution-Robespierre/dp/0691169713},
isbn = {0691169713},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-09-22},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}

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• https://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Ideas-Intellectual-Revolution-Robespierre/d[...]

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In the last decade of the eighteenth century, one of the greatest experiments ever was being conducted. It wasn’t a scientific experiment, even though it was the culmination of Enlightenment thinking. It wasn’t led by scientists, although many of the most prominent leaders had discoveries and inventions to their names. And even though it was conducted in the name of progress and reason, it ended up suppressing ideas and killing the people that held them. I am talking, of course, about the French Revolution.

Hello and welcome to A History of Science: Episode 6: Revolutionary Science.

Introduction

France was not a backward country before the revolution. Rather, it was closer to being the intellectual center of the world. During the eighteenth century, French academies had transformed from rigid schools teaching ancient concepts to breeding grounds for theorizing and experimentation. French public debate was alive with new ideas on natural philosophy and humanist thinking. Periodical publications, including the world’s first ever academic journal, Le Journal des Savants, disseminated these exciting new thoughts to eager French audiences.

The kings of France were amongst the enthusiastic patrons of this new scientific community. They very much liked to style themselves as enlightened monarchs of a modern state. As such, many institutions, observatories, and laboratories enjoyed the royal prefix – most notably the prestigious Royal Academy of Sciences, and were financially sponsored by the state. But individual researchers, too, were known to benefit from royal patronage. One alumnus of the University of Paris, who had become a renowned experimenter in his own right, was Pierre Polinière. He was known for exciting his audiences with demonstrations of scientific principles. At the height of his fame, king Louis XV invited him to lecture at his court. He allegedly dazzled the noble crowd by making an apple explode with an air-pump. Even Louis XVI, the ill-fated last king of France before the revolution, was known to have a keen interest in technology. Under his watch, scientists experimented with balloon flight in the gardens of Versailles, while he himself tried his hand at lock-making in his state-of-the-art workshop.

But it was in this enlightened society, inspired by thinkers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, and Montesquieu, where, in 1789, the revolutionary flash hit the pan. Frustrated by famine, taxes, and oppressive government, the lower house overthrew the political order and thoroughly reformed the stat...