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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2024
The childhood of humanity, the human race in its infancy: while this expression was in common use, there was probably no ground for seeking out the implementation of real symbols on each occasion on which it was used. Its very success having made it commonplace, a metaphor becomes a convenient and communal way of speaking which does not necessarily correspond to a way of thinking. But as soon as the formula seems to be out of date, is ceases retrospectively by this fact, to be commonplace. Or to be more exact, a triteness to which the common run of thought no longer adheres, begins in itself to pose a question: if the end of a stereotype is not a loss for scholarship, it is a spur to reflection. What a modification must take place in our rational apprehension of ourselves, what an alteration of the status, content and function of the ideas of humanity and of childhood, in order that the metaphor “the childhood of humanity” should in future have no explanatory power, and that having ceased to enlighten or to prove, it should have ceased to appear natural, in order to become obsolete. Since the image of the childhood of humanity was commonplace, what concatenation of evidence was the basis for this commonplaceness? What does the recourse to images of childhood mean, as related to the definitive confines of humanity? And what is the conception of human “becoming” which is backed up by the temporal and qualitative buttresses of a childhood?
1 Cf. H. Gouhier, La jeunesse d'Auguste Comte et la formation du positivisme, Paris, 1936, Vol. II, p. 51-52.
2 De Bonald, Œuvres complètes, ed. Migne, Paris, 1859, t. III, vol. 332-333.
3 Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-worship, and the Heroic in History, ed. Ashburton, London, 1885, t. III, p. 6, p. 88.
4 Ch. Bonnet, Essai analytique sur les facultés de l'âme, Œuvres complètes, Neuchâtel, 1772, t. VI, p. 11.
5 Rousseau, Emile ou de l'éducation, Paris, Garnier, 1964, p. 40.
6 Spinoza, Ethics, Bk. V, scholium of propr. VI; Bk. IV, scholium of prop. XXXIX.
7 Comte, Cours de philosophie positive, Paris, 1877, t. IV, lesson 49, p. 348; lesson 46, p. 85.
8 Hegel, Lessons on the History of Philosophy; Introduction to the Philosophy of History; Herder, Ideas for the Philosophy of the History of Humanity, Bk. XI.
9 Comte, Cours…, lesson 50, p. 405.
10 Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Paul et Virginie, Paris, 1966, Preamble, p. 65.
11 Turgot, Discours sur l'histoire universelle, Œuvres, ed. Daire, Paris, 1844, t. II, p. 633.
12 Volney, La loi naturelle ou catéchisme du citoyen français, Paris, 1934, p. 39.
13 Saint-Simon, Introduction aux travaux scientifiques du XIXe siècle, Œuvres choisies, Bruxelles, 1859, t. I, p. 110.
14 Comte, Cours…, Œuvres choisies, Paris, Aubier, lesson 1, p. 62.
15 Ancillon, Essais philosophiques, Paris-Geneva, 1817, t. I, p. 94-95.
16 I. Iselin, Über die Geschichte der Menschheit, Zurich, 1770, t. I, p. 197.
17 Saint-Simon, De la physiologie appliquée à l'amélioration des institutions sociales, Œuvres de Saint-Simon et d'Enfantin, t. 39, p. 181.
18 Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History.
19 Herder, Another Philosophy of History.
20 Savigny, Vom Beruf unserer Zeit für Gesetzgebung und Rechtswissenschaft, Heidelberg, 1840, p. 9.
21 Schelling, Über Mythen, historische Sagen und Philosopheme der ältesten Welt, Works, ed. Cotta, Stuttgart, 1856, t. I, p. 51-53.
22 Saint-Simon, Introduction…, p. 117; De la physiologie…, p. 178. Also cf. Fourier, Œuvres, Paris, 1841, t. I, p. 56; t. II, p. 15.
23 La Mettrie, L'homme machine, Paris, 1966, p. 83.
24 Ibid.
25 Comte, Cours…, t. IV, lesson 48, p. 220, p. 221; lesson 51, p. 475; lesson 48, p. 223.
26 Volney, Les Ruines, Paris, 1838, p. 16, p. 19.
27 De Maistre, Etude sur la souveraineté, Œuvres complètes, Lyon, 1884, t. I. p. 323, p. 325.
28 Rousseau, Du contrat social, Paris, Garnier, 1962, p. 264.
29 Exposition de la doctrine saint-simonienne, Paris, 1924, 4th seance, p. 215 note.
30 Herder, Another Philosophy of History.
31 Herder, Ideas…
32 Saint-Simon, De la physiologie…, p. 190.
33 J. Itard, Rapport sur les nouveaux développements de Victor de l'Aveyron, published with L. Malson, Les enfants sauvages, p. 170. Paris, 1964.
34 F. Schlegel, Complete Works, Vienna, 1846, Philosophie des Lebens, lesson VI; Philosophie der Geschichte, lesson VI, p. 173-174; Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier, Heidelberg, 1808. p. 49.
35 Volney, Les Ruines, p. 50-52.
36 Lessing, Die Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts, § 16, 44-51.
37 Herder, Another Philosophy of History, p. 123.
38 Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History, p. 234.
39 Ibid., p. 251.
40 Cf. L. Malson, op. cit.; F. Tinland, L'homme sauvage, Paris, 1968.
41 E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, London, 1873, t. I, p. 284, p. 304. L. Lévy-Bruhl, see especially Les fonctions mentales dans les sociétés inférieures, Paris, 1951, p. 20, p. 454, Les Carnets, Paris, 1949, p. 73.
