Politics and vocation: French Science, 1793–1830

Abstract

French science of the period between 1793 and 1830 is now a major focus of study. The large body of work produced since the nineteenth century, particularly in the field of institutional history, has provided the background for important attempts in the last ten or fifteen years to apply tools of sociological analysis to this field of enquiry. Particularly important have been theories of professionalization and institutionalization. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the consequences of the use of such models in relation to this specific historical context. In particular, I shall suggest that such questions as the importance of institutions in the conduct of science, and the extent to which science became a profession or remained a vocation, may be better understood once the world of French science has been situated in a wider political and intellectual context. An article, however, can do no more than suggest new perspectives, and must leave to more extended treatments the work of amplification and correction. Briefly, however, this paper will argue for a view of science at this period as locked in a conflict between the ambiguous demands of the political world on the one hand, and on the other pressures on individuals and groups within the vocation of science to conform to an ideology which viewed science as completely non-political.

A Serpent without Teeth. The Conservative Transformism of Jean-Baptiste d?Omalius d?Halloy (1783?1875)

“…Like many aspiring naturalists of the same period, d’Omalius met considerable parental hostility concerning his choice of profession (Outram, 1988, p. 31). After the fall of Napoleon in 1814, he finally gave into his father’s demands to find a ‘stable’ occupation outside the scientific world.…”

Scientific Thought and its Meaning for Religion: The Impact of French Science on British Natural Theology, 1827-1859

“…The question therefore arises whether the contrast between theistic philosophies of nature in England, and secular, positivist prescriptions in France might not owe something to contrasting channels of patronage. Centralized government support, embodied by an Académie anxious to protect an elitist model of scientific expertise, would militate against constructions of nature which gave explicit support to the Bible, and especially when the tones of a Catholic revival could be equated with a threat from provincial amateurism 70. It is also possible, as Dorinda Outram has suggested, that the French system, in which it was vital to secure the patronage of powerful individuals, would encourage positivist philosophies of science, in which repeatable experimental results, rather than normative metaphysics, would be emphasized 71 . Insofar as natural theology supplied a normative metaphysics in England, it was certainly sustained by Owen as a badge of social and scientific respectability 72. Owen has been a problem for historians of science because he had some sympathy for the view that one species could emerge from another as a result of deviation in the development of an embryo.…”

The most difficult career: Women's history in science

“…The idea that the history of the emergence of science as we know it today was the result of its increasing 'professionalization', held sway throughout the 1970s, and only really began to be challenged in the 1980s (e.g. Outram 1980Outram , 1984Abir-Am and Outram 1987). This development was important to the making of a woman's history of science, because defining the history of science in terms of the history of its 'professionalization' had constituted a positive obstacle to the perception of women as part of the scientific world.…”

“…Essentially, it changed partly because the 'professionalization' thesis began to be subjected to increasing internal challenge, from perspectives with little reference to feminism and much closer to the demands of general history. The professionalization thesis had to go not because it was unfair to women's history, but because it was simply bad history (Outram 1980). Once the professionalization thesis had been removed, the way was open for other viewpoints and for other attempts at synthesis to take its place.…”