Resisting Newton in provincial France, 1750s-1770s: Opposition from the margins to the Parisian academic community.

Abstract

In the eighteenth century, the requirements for participation in scientific life were progressively narrowed, leading to a gradual closure of the community of the learned. This shift was influenced by the dissemination of Newton's natural philosophy across Europe, which catalysed the rejection of previously dominant principles and methods, while heralding the adoption of a new approach, based on mathematics and experimentalism. This paper examines various forms of resistance to the emergence of a community of Newtonian savants in post-1750 France, focusing on institutions and authors located at its margins. First, I analyse the relationship between provincial and central academies through the case study of the Académie des Belles-Lettres de Caen. Here, the persistent opposition to Newton was partly due to cultural conservatism but was also a form of resistance to the centralisation and concentration of expertise, and the resulting homogenisation of practices, promoted by the Paris Academy. Secondly, I examine the opposition to Newton by some authors working outside the academic milieu, who contributed to the "provincialisation" of knowledge by addressing a provincial public in their writings. Their aim was not only to engage in a dialogue with the savants of the authoritative institutions, which was almost impossible at the time, but also to appear as polemicists on the public stage, attracting a readership thirsty for scientific perspectives alternative to those considered mainstream.