The formation of the scientific identity of J. L. D'Alembert and his contribution to the development of literary genres of the XVIII century

IntroductionThe relevance of the research topic is connected with the reception of the personality of Jean Leron d'Alembert (Jean le-Rond d'Alembert, 1717-1783), whose extraordinary biography is considered in the socio-cultural context of the Enlightenment and is closely connected with the development of the humanities in France of the XVIII century.

The significance of the question makes the problem of studying the contribution of mathematician J. L. D'Alembert to the formation of French literature of the XVIII century relevant, understanding the historical and literary direction of his activity. The analysis of the biography of J. L. D'Alembert allows us to consider his work from different points of view: philosophical and literary studies proper. At the same time, the identity and personality of an encyclopedic scientist are evaluated as key categories in the axiological dimension of a person.

The research aims to solve the following tasks: firstly, to consider the stages of the formation of the identity of J. L. D'Alembert as a scientist, educator, writer; secondly, to determine the literary contribution of J. L. D'Alembert and to characterize the genre specifics of a number of his works that have become a historical and literary phenomenon (Discours pr?liminaire, ?loges), which allows to reveal his literary self-identification. For this purpose, the article uses a combination of biographical and contextual-interpretative methods of literary analysis. The biographical method (Yu.M. Bespalova) is the key in the work and allows us to trace the dynamics of the scientist's life path, his entry into the cultural environment and social environment, as well as ways to realize his capabilities in various passionate periods of his life.

The theoretical basis of the research, along with the works of domestic scientists (V.M. Boguslavsky, T.B. Dlugach, V.A. Dobrovolsky, A.P. Ogurtsov), who considered J. L. D'Alembert as an outstanding mathematician, founder of hydrodynamics and mathematical physics, philosopher, public figure and educator, were the works of foreign authors (F. Launay, V. Le Ru, I. Passeron, P. Cr?pel, etc.), who noted that together with D. Diderot, the scientist was the editor-in-chief (1751-1758) of the Encyclopedia (Encyclop?die, ou Dictionnaire raisonn? des sciences, des arts et des m?tiers), where he led its physical and mathematical sections. Active work on the publication of the monumental work allowed the French researcher Veronique Le Rue to define this scientific union with the metaphor "l'aigle ? deux t?tes de l'Encyclop?die" (the double-headed eagle of the Encyclopedia) ^[1]. It is important to state that the name of J. L. D'Alembert belonged to science, philosophy, and literature ^{[2, p. 517]}.

Over the past 50 years, no separate study has been written in Russia on the formation of J. L. D'Alembert as a writer. His work received the greatest response in France, in particular, in the multidisciplinary journal "Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclop?die", founded in 1986. In particular, issue No. 38 of La formation de D'Alembert in 2005 was entirely devoted to the topic of becoming a scientist as an encyclopedist. Issue No. 52 of this magazine Diderot et D'Alembert for 2017 He consecrated the topic of cooperation between D. Diderot and J. L. D'Alembert when working on the Encyclopedia. Until now, the literary work of the encyclopedic scientist, who initially did not think of himself as a writer, but entered the history of French literature as the creator of a number of literary genres (introductory speech, elogs), has remained on the sidelines.

Turning to the biography of the scientist, researchers see many twists of fate in his life, which makes it possible to speak about the multifaceted identity of the scientist and use this word in the plural – l es identit? s de D'Alembert ^[3-4]. The concept of identity, representing one of the key phenomena of the reality of a person and society, in this case tends to the multiplicity of its manifestation and is the focus in which social meanings of common interest and strategies of value-oriented activity of the individual are formed ^{[5, pp. 206-216]}. Social identity in the biography of J. L. D'Alembert includes many hypostases of his self-identification as a person, which may tend at one stage or another of his life to develop into scientific, political, ideological self-identification. This was clearly manifested in the handwritten autobiography of the scientist himself ^[3].

Dynamics of the name of J. L. D'AlembertTo answer the question about the identity of a scientist, it is important to turn to the biographical method, which will allow to trace the dynamics of the life path of J. L. D'Alembert, to identify the role of cultural and social factors in the formation of his personality as a writer and creator of a number of literary genres, as well as to study the reverse impact of personality on the socio-cultural situation of the period of "passion phases" of his biography ^{[6, pp. 21-33]}.

Researchers of the biography of the scientist P. Krepel and I. Pasron (Pierre Cr?pel, Ir?ne Passeron) identified four such phases (Rep?res chronologiques), which are related ^[7]:

1) with his writings (li?es ? l'?criture);

2) with the period of his election to the French Academy of Sciences (l'Acad?mie royale des sciences de Paris);

3) with the creation and publication of the "Encyclopedia" (l'encyclop? die);

4) with a period of participation in the French Academy (l'Acad ? mie fran ?aise)

The fateful vicissitudes of the scientist were reflected in the way he officially positioned his name in different years. It seems that the formation of ideas about a person's place in the world around him took place in J. L. D'Alembert, who went from the unenviable fate of a bastard to the status of a writer and academician, in accordance with the change of his surname in historical dynamics ^[8].

Having been born as an illegitimate child (the parents were the engineer officer Detouches and the writer Tansen), J. L. D'Alembert was brought up by his wet nurse, the wife of a glazier, in whose family he lived for about 40 years. As a young man grows up, he is in search of his identity, establishing his name in official documents ^[9-10].

From 1730 to 1735, J. L. D'Alembert appeared under different surnames in documents submitted to educational institutions. Investigating this issue and analyzing the personal documents of the scientist, Fran?oise Launay notes that at the age of 13 he entered the Mazarin College under the name Daremberg, which was subordinate to the Sorbonne, where only 30 students studied. J. L. D'Alembert spent three years there, deeply immersed in mathematics, studying ancient languages, oratory, literature, philosophy. Having eventually received the degree of magister in artibus, J. L. D'Alembert entered the Academy of Legal Sciences in 1735, where he was listed in the records of the educational institution as Jean Baptiste Louis d'Aremberg ^{[4, p. 247]}.

In the same year, the student d'Aremberg submits a petition to the Sorbonne, where he asks to enroll in the Faculty of Philosophy under the name Jean Le Rond. As a consequence, the receipt of a certificate of education in this name is confirmed by a document signed by the rector on the basis of a birth certificate provided by a student: "Joannes Le Rond Parisinus, qui cum ? queriti? credidisset se nominari Joannem baptistam Ludovicum, et solitus esset a parentibus vocitari d'aremberg, inscripsit se in catalogis philosophicis Joannem bapt. Ludovicum d'aremberg, omisso nomine suo gentilitio Le Rond; supplicavit, ut inscribatur suo nomine Joannes Le Rond, sine ullo allio cognomine" ^{[4, pp. 247-248]}.

After graduating from the university with the title of licentiate of law in 1738 under the name Joannes le Rond, the young man becomes a lawyer, but prefers to leave this path by enrolling in the medical faculty. According to P. Camuff, the signature, like a dash or hyphen, expands the space of the text. The author's name works in two directions: 1) the name "appropriates" the text to itself; 2) the text "expropriates" the author's name, forming an inseparable whole with it ^{[11, p. 25]}. In this sense, the interdependence of the author's name and the text, the name and the whole work, and even the genre, is clearly shown by the example of the works of J. L. D'Alembert, which he signed in different ways: "Il prit, contre son gr? semble-t-il, le nom de Darembert puis Dalembert, D'Alembert, mais signait assez souvent Le Rond Dalembert (avec ou sans apostrophe). Sa signature dans l'Encyclop?die ?tait O (le rond) (He took, against his will, it seems, the name Darembert, then Dalember, D'Alembert, but quite often signed himself Le Ronde Dalember (with or without an apostrophe). His signature in the Encyclopedia was O (circle)) ^[12]. It seems that the attention to his name for a young man who was rapidly entering the scientific world was significant for the formation and designation of his identity by the semiotic sign O (le rond – circle, circle), which correlated with his interest in mathematics.

Stages of becoming a scientist

In science, initially and to the present day, J. L. D'Alembert is better known as a great mathematician, the successor of the Dutch physicist and mathematician H. Huygens (Christiaan Huygens, 1629-1695) and the creator of classical physics Englishman I. Newton (Isaac Newton, 1642-1727), a contemporary and opponent of the outstanding Swiss mathematician and physicist D. Bernoulli (Daniel Bernoulli, 1700-1782), French mathematician and astronomer A.L. Clairaut (Alexis Claude Clairaut, 1713-1765) and one of the greatest mathematicians in world history Leonhard Euler (1707-1783), who combined algebra, geometry, trigonometry, number theory and other disciplines into a single system.

Interest in mathematics led the young J. L. D'Alembert to the fact that self-education and work in public libraries allowed him to conduct innovative research. From 1739-1740, a new period in his life begins, which can rightfully be called the first stage of the formation of a scientist. Self–education in mathematics – a very fashionable science of that time - allowed the young researcher to create two treatises, submitting them to the Academy of Sciences: a treatise on the motion of solids in liquids and a treatise on integral calculus. In his autobiography, J. L. D'Alembert notes that in May 1741, at the age of 23, he was elected to the Academy of Sciences as an adjunct ^[3]. In 1743, his famous Treatise on Dynamics (Trait ? dedynamique) was published, which served as a turning point in the development of mechanics, the author of which was 26 years old ^[13]. The publication of this treatise placed J. L. D'Alembert among the first geometers of Europe ^{[14, p. 89]}. Today, his work A Treatise on dynamics is widely used in solving problems of mechanics of mechanisms and machines, greatly simplifying the corresponding mathematical calculations ^{[15, p. 260]}.

The second stage of becoming a scientist. In 1744, J. L. D'Alembert published a Treatise on the equilibrium and motion of liquids (Trait ? de l'? quilibre et du mouvement des fluides), where, following the Swiss physicist D. Bernoulli, he developed the science of hydrodynamics. The widespread popularity of J. L. D'Alembert was promoted by the 2nd edition of his work On the common cause of the winds (r? flexions sur la Cause g?n? rale des vents), dedicated to the King of Prussia, the representative of enlightened absolutism Frederick II. For this work, the young scientist received the prize of the Royal Academy in Berlin and was elected a member of it. In 1765, J. L. D'Alembert was elected a full member of the Paris Academy of Sciences (with the appointment of content), but the government did not approve the Academy's decisions for a long time until it was forced to yield to the pressure of the scientific community ^{[16, pp. 6-7]}.

J. L. D'Alembert became the first truly French mathematician whose name was inscribed in the history of the creation of exact sciences, the predecessor of the greatest mathematician of the XVIII century, the French scientist J.-L. Lagrange (Joseph Louis Lagrange, 1736-1813) and the greatest scientist of France P.-S. Laplace (Pierre-Simon de Laplace, 1749-1827) – a mathematician and one from the creators of probability theory ^{[16, p. 3]}. It should be noted that J. L. D'Alembert wrote all his works in French, which was innovative for the science of that time, which was based on Latin.

The third stage of becoming a scientist is connected in the "Encyclopedia". He was four years younger than D. Diderot when he became co-editor of the Encyclopedia in 1750, but he is authoritative and known as a major scientist, a specialist in geometry, an associate of the Paris Academy and a member of a number of foreign academies. Whereas D. Diderot was known in a narrow circle of educated people for his philosophical essays, several anonymous literary fairy tales, translations of works. It is no coincidence that in 1742 the honorary academician, President of the French Royal Academy of Sciences M.-P. d'Argenson (Marc-Pierre de Voyer de Paulmy comte d'Argenson, 1696-1764) called D. Diderot only "un Monsieur Diderot" (a certain Mr. Diderot) ^{[17, p. 36]}.

J. L. D'Alembert devotes a lot of time to editing and writing articles for a multi-volume work. In 1751, the first volume of the Encyclopedia was published in 2000 copies, where the famous preface by J. L. D'Alembert was printed, at the time of writing which he was 34 years old. It is J. L. D'Alembert who will become the herald (le h?raut) of collective enlightenment thought thanks to the Preliminary Discussion (Discours pr? liminaire) to volume I of the Encyclopedia, as well as his prefaces to other volumes and more than 1,600 scientific and artistic articles in the first seven volumes of this edition ^{[14, p. 89]}.

The preliminary discussion (Discours pr? liminaire) was, in essence, a work that set forth the philosophical credo of the author. But in fact, this is how "the educational concept of the history of science was formed" ^{[18, p. 117]}. The fact that Discours pr ? liminaire has actually become an independent and in-demand work (une ?uvre ? part enti?re et intellectuellement autonome) is evidenced by the fact that the active use of the first volume of the Encyclopedia, preserved in the collection of the Mazarin library, bears traces of active reading of this particular part of the volume: "le premier tome de la collection conserv?e ? la Mazarine porte les stigmates d'un usage assidu t?moigne probablement d'une pratique de lecture sp?cifique qui concerne le seul Discours et non le dictionnaire" ^{[19, p. 141]}.

The appearance of such a public text is based on literary traditions, when writers, in order to give their works socio-cultural significance, preceded the main text of the work with a pre-text appeal to the reader. Setting out the provisions of a programmatic nature, they wrote primarily about the relevance of the work, innovative in genre terms. The reader's practice included a new multi–volume genre - "Encyclopedia", acquaintance with which assumed preparation for its consistent and successful reading. The expansion of the "textual horizon" ^[20] occurs precisely due to the paratext genre – Discours pr ? liminaire.

The relevance of the text Discours pr ? liminaire (Preliminary reasoning), which has become a kind of historical and literary phenomenon, it is difficult to overestimate. His genre affiliation has become significant for the literary value of the entire reference edition. The discursive principle itself is manifested in the fact that the author speaks on his own behalf, which is expressed by the referential pronoun je (I):

Pour me renfermer dans mon sujet, je remarquerai seulement que l'agr ? ment & l'avantage que nous trouvons dans un pareil commerce, soit ? faire part de nos id ? es aux autres hommes, soit ? joindre les leurs aux n'tres, doit nous porter ? resserrer de plus en plus les liens de la soci?t? commenc ?e, & ? la rendre la plus utile pour nous qu'il est possible (In order not to close in on my topic, I will only note that the solution and advantage we have found in such an enterprise will either facilitate the transfer of our ideas to other people, or will attach their ideas to our own, giving us the opportunity to spread the ties of the started enterprise more and more, to make it as useful to us as possible) ^[21].

The appearance of the pronoun nous (we) in the Preliminary Reasoning is due to the fact that this text essentially consists of three parts, where the beginning and ending are written by J. L. D'Alembert, and the middle part is represented by a preliminary Prospectus1750, written by D. Diderot ^{[22, p. 119]}.

At the beginning of the text Discours pr?liminaire, the author ambitiously declares that he decided to use his own knowledge and the knowledge of other outstanding people of his time (La m ? moire est le talent des premiers, la sagacit ? appartient aux seconds, & les dernier s ont l'agr ? ment en partage) to create a work (OUVRAGE) in which all books would consist, to present a picture of the human mind (des connoissances humaines) for all previous centuries and in all branches of knowledge, starting from the most distant times and ending with the present ^[21]:

L’OUVRAGE <...> a deux objets: comme Encyclop?die, il doit exposer autant qu’il est possible, l’ordre & l’encha?nement des connoissances humaines, comme Dictionnaire <...> il doit contenir sur chaque Science & sur chaque Art, les principes g?n?raux qui en sont la base, & les d?tails les plus essentiels, qui en font le corps & la substance (The work appears in two guises: as an Encyclopedia, it should organize, as far as possible, the interrelation of human knowledge; as a Dictionary, it should contain information about each Science, each Art form, the general principles underlying them, and the most essential details that make up their essence).

The pragmatic task of the author's Preliminary reasoning is to present the specific material of the Encyclopedia, to create a number of conditions for successful work with the work through a prospective text that precedes the work on mastering the material of the publication. The author of the reasoning notes that such a task is difficult, since the system of scientific knowledge is a maze and a road with bumps (une espece de labyrinthe, de chemin tortueux):

Le syst?me g?n?ral des Sciences & des Arts est une espece de labyrinthe, de chemin tortueux o? l’esprit s’engage sans trop conno?tre la route qu’il doit tenir. (The general system of Sciences and Arts is a kind of labyrinth, a winding road that the mind enters, not knowing in advance which path to choose.) ^[21].

It seems that Discours pr?liminaire as a genre is "a message sent by some person in specific circumstances and with a specific purpose" when a text significant for genre identity appears under the influence of a "situational context" ^{[23, pp. 79-80]}. The pragmatic attitude of the author of the Preliminary Discussion to the "Encyclopedia" was primarily to convince future readers of the relevance of this publication and its value. The contribution that J. L. D'Alembert made to this fundamental work is expressed by the fact that the name of the scientist invariably sounds when they say: "The Encyclopedia of D'Alembert and Diderot is a work for all times" ^[24].

The fourth stage of the scientist's formation is connected with his election to the French Academy (1754), which J. L. D'Alembert joined after three failures. In 1772, he was elected secretary of the Academy and held this position until his death (November 29, 1783). Since 1759, the scientist has actively positioned himself as a writer.

At one time, researchers of the biography of J. L. D'Alembert noted that in literature he is considered primarily an encyclopedist. However, Jean-Fran ? ois de La Harpe (1739-1803), the author of a multi-volume history of literature, believed that J. L. D'Alembert was one of the cohort of five remarkable writers of France, along with Fontenelle, Buffon, Montesquieu and Condillac, who made a significant contribution to real philosophy ^{[25, 10]}. The question arises, what allowed J. L. D'Alembert to gain fame as a writer, whose biography was included in the series "Les grands ?crivains fran?ais" back in the XIX century ^[17].

As a writer, J. L. D'Alembert actively shows his position in 1759 in the collection "M?langes de litt?rature, d'histoire et de philosophie" ^[26], initiated by himself, in which various genre works of French writers are published. His "Essay on the society of Literati and Great people, on reputation, on patrons and on literary awards" (Essai sur la soci?t? des Gens de Lettres et des Grands, sur la r? putation, sur les m?c?s et sur les r? compenses litt? raires), known as "A Note on Writers" and published in this collection, it caused a special controversy in society. The scientist talks about the usefulness of literature, considers it necessary to discuss the issues of the active position of writers and rethinking the term litt? rature. J. L. D'Alembert seeks to present himself not as a mathematician, but primarily as a writer, philosopher, thinker: "ce recueil est fortement unifi? par la volont? de d'Alembert de se pr?senter comme un auteur, philosophe et homme de lettres et non plus g?om?tre" ^{[27, p. 229]}.

Critical reflections of J. L. D'Alembert are addressed to the problem of the relationship of writers with the society in which they live. The scientist exposes special criticism to those who seek to quarrel among writers, the so-called "satirists", who actively criticize both works and authors, paying tribute to the fashion only for satirical works (satire). Such practices, according to the scientist, result in undisguised slander (for example, attacks on writers in the name of defending religion), which does not contribute to strengthening the writer's community: "Dans les pays o? la presse n'est pas libre, la license d'insulter les Gens de Lettres par des satires, n'est qu'une preuve du peu de consid?ration r?elle qu'on a pour eux, du plaisir m?me qu'on prend ? les voir insult?s. Et pourquoi est-il permis d'outrager un homme de Lettres qui honore sa Nation, que de rendre ridicule un homme en place qui avilit la sienne?" ^{[26, p. 394]}.

The scientist emphasizes that the appearance of small competing groups of writers turns them into "tribunals" that ruin worthy works: "De l? tant de r?putations usurp?es, du moins pour un temps, qui ne feront jamais rien produire aux talents m?diocres, et qui d?couragent les v?ritables, qui les humilient m?me en leur montrant les mains par lesquelles la gloire est distribu?e; de l? cette foule de petites soci?t?s et de tribunaux o? les grands g?nies sont d?chir?s par les gens qui ne sont pas digne de les lire" ^{[26, p. 347]}. It seems that in the above reasoning, J. L. D'Alembert refers to the bitter events for him personally two years ago, when the article "Geneva" written by him and published in volume VII of the Encyclopedia (1757) caused a flurry of such criticism that at the beginning of 1758, J. L. D'Alembert left the Encyclopedia.

In his essay, J. L. D'Alembert proclaims that the true courage of the writer consists in the struggle against social prejudices and vices. Freedom, truth and poverty are three words that, according to the scientist, should always be before the eyes of writers if they want to remain in the memory of posterity: "LIBERT?; V?RIT? ET PAUVRET? <...> voil? les trois mots que les Gens de lettres devraient toujours avoir devant les yeux" ^{[26, p. 399]}. It is in his essay, which will be the key in the collection "M?langes de litt?rature, d'histoire et de philosophie", J. L. D'Alembert stipulates the principles of the existence of the so-called "R?publique de lettres". In the age of Enlightenment, this supranational association of scientists, whose communication was carried out mainly by correspondence, will become the prototype of the scientific community, marking the beginning of academies and scientific periodicals.

Scientific and artistic understanding of scienceAn important stage in the scientific and artistic understanding of science in the work of J. L. D'Alembert was the appeal to the historical biographies of prominent scientists of the era when "the philological orientation of historical thinking of that time was reflected primarily in the fact that the history of scientific knowledge was considered from the point of view of the development of scientific literature as an integral part of literature, i.e. written sources" ^{[18, p. 162]}.

It is noted that in the second half of the XVIII century there are significant changes in the historiography of sciences, which is typical for literary historians in connection with the need to describe the history of scientific knowledge: "The historiography of science of the Enlightenment era includes an integral part of elogs – laudatory words, usually pronounced after the death of a scientist – member of the Academy of Sciences. This biographical genre has played a major role in the promotion of scientific achievements, in the recognition by the scientific community of scientists (the "republic of scientists") of the results of scientific work, in determining the most valuable achievements and the most important areas of scientific activity" ^{[18, pp. 168-169]}.

J. L. D'Alembert also paid tribute to the genre of glorification of scientists, who wrote an article Eloge (1755) for the V volume of the Encyclopedia ^[28], which became the prologue of more than 90 eloges (?loges) written later by J. L. D'Alembert himself and classified as des ouvrages imprim? s non scientifiques (printed works of an unscientific nature) in "R?pertoire alphab?tique des ouvrages imprim?s non scientifiques de Jean Le Rond D'Alembert", presented on the website "Les ? uvres compl ? tes de D'Alembert (1717-1783)" ^[7]. The elogs were read out at official meetings of the French Academy and became a kind of moral scientific instruction by J. L. D'Alembert ("cath?chisme moral scientifique"), which served as a prologue to the creation of the "R?publique des sciences", which will exist regardless of privileges and royal favors ^{[3, p. 34]}.

As a memorial speech, the Elogue is a stable literary genre characterized by dialogicity, in which, as a rule, there is an assessment of a person's lifetime achievements on the way to immortalization,: "L'?loge fun?bre est une source primaire pr?cieuse pour sonder la fabrique de la grandeur savante, c'est-?-dire le processus par lequel un ensemble composite de valeurs ?pist?miques et morales est attribu? ? un homme de science apr?s sa mort, un homme de science jug? exceptionnel et exemplaire par ses confr?res comme les publics captiv?s par la science" ^{[29, p. 47]}. Elogs become the source of the process of glorification of a man of science who has passed away, both by colleagues and by the public who are passionate about science. In this case, the ideological meaning of life and death is emphasized, which sets the scale of the true values professed by the deceased scientist ^{[30, pp. 73-81]}. This genre involves overcoming the momentary context, when the author of the speech actualizes the high meanings of human actions for the common good beyond time.

ConclusionThe study of the works of J. L. D'Alembert, reflecting the views of the scientist, allows us to identify him as a versatile personality, which is characterized by "encyclopedic dominance, linguistic competence, communicative leadership" ^[31].

The analysis of the forms of transfer of scientific knowledge in the person of J. L. D'Alembert allows us to build a certain matrix of his social interaction with the scientific community of that time and give an answer to the question of whether J. L. D'Alembert's interests were focused on the exact sciences, which he had been engaged in since his youth, when mathematics became his irresistible hobby, or the scientist was an encyclopedist, who did not stand aside from the literary processes of his time.

Voltaire called him the best writer of his century, the only writer of the era who always spoke clearly and in fact, only what he wanted to say. This high praise included recognition in the writing style of J. L. D'Alembert of his peculiarity as a mathematician. D. Diderot considered J. L. D'Alembert a subtle, witty, bold, original, sincere writer, noting his mathematical manner of reasoning about literature. Of course, the merit of J. L. D'Alembert is that, by participating in the creation, publication and editing of the Encyclopedia, he put in order and shed true light on all the knowledge acquired by mankind earlier ^{[10, pp. 67-69]}.

Prospects for further research of the problem of J. L. D'Alembert's literary contribution consist in the need to study his "Preliminary Reasoning" to the Encyclopedia as a literary manifesto of enlightenment, articles devoted to literary processes and such author genres as elogies, essays, etc.