The Dustbin of the Republic of Letters: Pierre Bayle's “&lt;i&gt;Dictionaire&lt;/i&gt;” as an encyclopedic palimpsest of errors

Vermeir, Koen

doi:10.7761/jems.1.1.109

Journal of Early Modern Studies

2012

DOI: 10.7761/jems.1.1.109

|View full text |Cite

The Dustbin of the Republic of Letters: Pierre Bayle's “<i>Dictionaire</i>” as an encyclopedic palimpsest of errors

Koen Vermeir

Help me understand this report

Search citation statements

Order By: Relevance

Paper Sections

Select...

Citation Types

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Year Published

2016

2020

Publication Types

Select...

Article2

Relationship

Self Cite1

Independent1

Authors

Journals

Cited by 2 publications

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

La république des« humeurs»: les querelles dans le dictionnaire de bayle

Moreau

2016

RDS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Quarrelling is a 'routine' activity of the Republic of Letters. This article demonstrates that quarrels played a key role in the field of historical criticism. The contention of this article is twofold. First, it explores the epistemological issues raised by Bayle while reporting the quarrels of the Republic of Letters, and demonstrates their creative potential, thus applying to historiography conclusions drawn by recent research on scientific controversies. It offers a new understanding of scholarly quarrels, here understood as a socially and intellectually structuring activity. Second, this article takes issue with the debate over Bayle's historical pyrrhonism. As will be shown, the quarrels constitute a key element within a method of writing history that is both conscious of its limits and confident of its investigative powers.

show abstract

La république des« humeurs»: les querelles dans le dictionnaire de bayle

Moreau

2016

RDS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Charlatan epistemology: As illustrated by a study of wonder-working in the late seventeenth-century Dutch Republic

Vermeir

2020

Sci Context

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ArgumentThis article highlights the epistemic concerns that have permeated the historical discourse around charlatanism. In it, I study the term “charlatan” as a multivalent actor’s category without a stable referent. Instead of defining or identifying “the charlatan,” I analyze how the concept of the charlatan was used to make epistemic interventions about what constituted credible knowledge in two interconnected controversies. Focusing on these controversies allows me to thematize how the concept of “the charlatan” expanded beyond medical contexts and to bring a history of knowledge perspective to the history of medicine.The title of the article, “Charlatan Epistemology,” indicates a historical epistemological approach to charlatanism as well as the existence of a charlatan’s embodied epistemology. On the one hand, I historicize the epistemic characteristics of charlatanism, focusing on virtues as well as vices, knowledge as well as ignorance, by addressing the historical and contextual specificities of two case studies and the larger epistemic concerns at play. On the other hand, I show how references to charlatanism implied the existence of specific embodied knowledges, special skills and techniques to manipulate either natural secrets or the human psyche, and I explore the similarities and differences between charlatan epistemology and artisanal epistemology.

show abstract

scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.

Contact Info

hi@scite.ai

334 Leonard St

Brooklyn, NY 11211

Blog Terms and Conditions API Terms Privacy Policy Contact Cookie Preferences Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Made with 💙 for researchers

Part of the Research Solutions Family.

The Dustbin of the Republic of Letters: Pierre Bayle's “<i>Dictionaire</i>” as an encyclopedic palimpsest of errors

Cited by 2 publications

References 15 publications

La république des« humeurs»: les querelles dans le dictionnaire de bayle

La république des« humeurs»: les querelles dans le dictionnaire de bayle

Charlatan epistemology: As illustrated by a study of wonder-working in the late seventeenth-century Dutch Republic

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About