Philosophe ou écrivain ? Problèmes de délimitation entre histoire littéraire et histoire de la philosophie en France, 1650-1850

Philosopher or writer? History of philosophy, history of literature and borderline cases, 1650-1850. (D. Ribard). This article is concerned with the concept of "French Philosophers of the 18th century" and shows how it was elaborated by academics, especially historians of philosophy and historians of literature, in order to exclude non-academic practices of philosophy from the "real" history of philosophy. People who considered themselves as philosophers have been characterized as "writers" and are now studied by specialists of literature, from a stylistic and rhetorical point of view. This article tries to show the complexity of non-academic philosophical practice from the Age of Descartes to the French Revolution. It analyzes how various historical models were successively produced to understand that practice, first by independent writers who tended to classify the philosophers of their time, then (after the Revolution and the reorganisation of academic life) by professors of philosophy and literature.Ribard Dinah. Philosophe ou écrivain ? Problèmes de délimitation entre histoire littéraire et histoire de la philosophie en France, 1650-1850. In: Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales. 55ᵉ année, N. 2, 2000. pp. 355-388