Der dritte Mann der Aufklärung

Abstract

Abstract The article focusses on a conceptual gap concerning the technical activities of artisans whom we would call today engineers during the Age of Enlightenment. Research has not yet been able to fill this discursive gap systematically, which is located between science and craft. This article will first identify this lacunae and then contribute to further differentiating how knowledge was constructed at that time. It then explores the examples of the discourses surrounding the first balloon flights (after 1783) and the pioneers of aviation, above all the little-appreciated »showman« Jean-Pierre Blanchard, as well as Christian Wolff’s concept of a third man, an early notion of the modern engineer from the spirit of the enlightenment itself. Finally, an analysis of Jean Paul’s tale Das Kampaner Tal (1797) will be presented as a poetic adaptation of the discursive connection between technics and religion.