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More about the themes and authors discussed below:
Scientific societies in early modern France: was it about collaboration and consensus?
The history of early modern learned societies takes two presuppositions for granted: 1) learned societies were created to facilitate collaboration between scientists; 2) collaboration aimed at developing a more robust and consensual science, which would rely on experimental facts and common principles.
Is this how their members accounted for the existence of these societies? Did they justify their being together because they wanted to collaborate? If not, what epistemic benefits did they expect from being together? If yes, what were the most efficient forms of collaboration for scientific progress according to them?
These are questions I’d like to ask about the Académie royale des sciences and the societies that immediately preceded it. In a very – really very – preliminary way, I propose that we discuss together the following texts. Each one being short and easy to read, it is much less than it seems.
Introduction: what would have been nice
Encouraging the expression of various opinions – and moderating them
Promoting observations and experiments – and looking for the King to fund them
Collaboration at the Académie royale des sciences