The Uses of Curiosity in Early Modern France and Germany

Why did people argue about curiosity in France, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries, so much more than today? Why was curiosity a fashionable topic in early modern conduct manuals, university dissertations, scientific treatises, sermons, newspapers, novellas, plays, operas, ballets, poems, from Corneille to Diderot, from Johann Valentin Andreae to Gottlieb Spizel? Universities, churches, and other institutions invoked curiosity in order to regulate knowledge or behavior, to establish who should try to know or do what, and under what circumstances. As well as investigating a crucial episode in the history of knowledge, this study makes a distinctive contribution to historiographical debates about the nature of "concepts." Curiosity was constantly reshaped by the uses of it. And yet, strangely, however much people contested what curiosity was, they often agreed that what they were disagreeing about was one and the same thing. Between The 16th And 18th Centuries, Writers Obsessively Discussed Curiosity In Order To Regulate Knowledge Or Behaviour To Establish Who Should Try To Know Or Do What. This Title Investigates That Obsession By Developing A Language Based Approach That Contributes To Debates About Knowledge We Can Have Of The Past. 1. Institutions : University -- 1.1. Curiosity And Universities In Central And Northern Germany -- 1.2. Defining Curiosity -- 1.3. 'adapted To The Ways Of Today' : Using Curiosity -- 1.4. Conclusions -- 2. Institutions : Church -- 2.1. Curiosity In Church Discourses -- 2.2. Avoiding Curiosity, More Or Less -- 2.3. Accommodating Curiosity, More Or Less -- 2.4. Conclusions -- 3. Institutions : The Culture Of Curiosities Discursive Tendencies : Collecting -- 3.1. Culture Of Curiosities -- 3.2. Collecting And Narrating As Discursive Tendencies -- 3.3. Calling Objects 'curious' -- 3.4. Discourses -- 3.5. Across Discourses -- 3.6. Conclusions -- 4. Discursive Tendencies : Narrating Sexes : Male -- 4.1. Narrating As A Discursive Tendency -- 4.2. Male And Female, Feminine And Masculine -- 4.3. Non-fiction -- 4.4. Fiction : Exemplarity And Beyond -- 4.5. Conclusions -- 5. Discursive Tendencies : Narrating Sexes : Female. Neil Kenny. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [433]-476) And Index. Why did people argue about curiosity in France, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries, so much more than today? Why was curiosity a fashionable topic in early modern conduct manuals, university dissertations, scientific treatises, sermons, newspapers, novellas, plays, operas, ballets, poems, from Corneille to Diderot, from Johann Valentin Andreae to Gottlieb Spizel? Universities, churches, and other institutions invoked curiosity in order to regulate knowledge or behaviour, to establish who should try to know or do what, and under what circumstances. As well as investigating a crucial episode in the history of knowledge, this study makes a distinctive contribution to historiographical debates about the nature of'concepts'. Curiosity was constantly reshaped by the uses of it. And yet, strangely, however much people contested what curiosity was, they often agreed that what they were disagreeing about was one and the same thing. "Universities, churches, and other institutions invoked curiosity in order to regulate knowledge or behaviour, to establish who should try to know or do what, and under what circumstances. As well as investigating a crucial episode in the history of knowledge, this study makes a distinctive contribution to historiographical debates about the nature of 'concepts'. Curiosity was constantly reshaped by the uses of it. And yet, strangely, however much people contested what curiosity was, they often agreed that what they were disagreeing about was one and the same thing."--BOOK JACKET