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Learned academies

Louis XIV visiting the Académie des sciences in 1671. "It is widely accepted that 'modern science' arose in the Europe of the 17th century, introducing a new understanding of the natural world." —Peter Barrett

The history of Academies in France during the Enlightenment begins with the Academy of Science, founded in 1635 in Paris. Structurally the Académie française, or Academy of Science, was closely tied to the French monarchy and state. That close working relationship greatly affected how it set about in its tasks. Membership into the Academy was heavily regulated and limited, there were 40 set seats, and membership was for a lifetime . Members were payed by the French crown after getting in, and were expected to work towards goals set by the state. Notably many famous influential French thinkers were never a part of the Academy due to the strict limits on membership, and due to membership applications being turned down by the crown, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, René Descartes, and Denis Diderot. Academies demonstrate the rising interest in science along with its increasing secularization, as evidenced by the small number of clerics who were members (13 percent).

In the first flush of scientific confidence, the thinkers of the Enlightenment tried to carry over into every human intellectual endeavour the search for first principles which, in Newton's physics, had been attended with such success. This search brought with it a sceptical attitude towards authority, rejecting everything that had no secure foundation in experience. In history, morals, metaphysics and literature the Enlightenment attitude briefly prevailed, giving rise to the phenomenal ambitions of the French encyclopaedists, and to their materialist, almost clockwork, vision of the universe. It produced the political theories which motivated the French and American revolutions, and the systematic explorations in chemistry and biology that were to find fruition in nineteenth-century evolutionism. It also brought about the technical achievements which precipitated modern industrialism, and while thus preparing the way for the miseries of revolution and factory labour, it infected the minds of the educated classes with a serenity of outlook, and a trust in human capacities, that weathered the assaults of Hume's scepticism, of Vice's anti-rationalism, of the growing introversion and doom-laden mysticism of the romantics. This was the Augustan age of English poetry, the age of Johnson and Goldsmith, of Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau, of Lessing and Winckelmann. From the point of view of the historian it is perhaps the richest and most exciting of all intellectual eras, not because of the content, but because of the influence, of the ideas that were current in it."

A Short History of Modern Philosophy

The presence of the French academies in the public sphere cannot be attributed to membership; The Academy was an institution open only to a select group of Parisian scholars and elites. However they did perceive themselves to be "interpreters of the sciences for the people". Indeed, it was with this in mind that academians took it upon themselves to disprove the popular pseudo-science of mesmerism.

Moreover a strong case for the French Academies' being part of the public sphere comes from the concours académiques (roughly translated as 'academic contests') they sponsored throughout France.

Antoine Lavoisier conducting an experiment related to combustion generated by amplified sun light.

Most importantly, the contests were open to all, and the enforced anonymity of each submission guaranteed that neither gender nor social rank would determine the judging. Indeed, although the "vast majority" of participants belonged to the wealthier strata of society ("the liberal arts, the clergy, the judiciary, and the medical profession"), there were some cases of the popular classes submitting essays, and even winning.

Similarly, a significant number of women participated – and won – the competitions. Of a total of 2300 prize competitions offered in France, women won 49 – perhaps a small number by modern standards, but very significant in an age in which most women did not have any academic training. Indeed, the majority of the winning entries were for poetry competitions, a genre commonly stressed in women's education.

In England, the Royal Society of London also played a significant role in the public sphere and the spread of Enlightenment ideas. It was given a royal charter in 1662 by the King of England and was founded by a group of independent Scientists. The structure of the Royal society places it very distinctly from the French Academy, with voluntary membership based around paying dues. As opposed to having a set number of members payed by the crown, Royal Society members instead pay the society for membership, and new members are elected on a yearly basis. Research is on a more individual basis by members, in a less hierarchical and more cooperative organization. Its purpose is according to its own charter "to recognise, promote, and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity" By providing funding and a way for like minded scientists to communicate and correspond on research matters the Royal Society provided an open forum for ideas and beliefs of the enlightenment. In particular, the Society played a large role in spreading Robert Boyle's experimental philosophy around Europe, and acted as a clearinghouse for intellectual correspondence and exchange. As Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer have argued, Robert Boyle was "a founder of the experimental world in which scientists now live and operate". Boyle's method based knowledge on experimentation, which had to be witnessed to provide proper empirical legitimacy. This is where the Royal Society came into play: witnessing had to be a "collective act", and the Royal Society's assembly rooms were ideal locations for relatively public demonstrations.

Organizations like the french Academy, and the Royal society of London helped spread enlightenment thinking and beliefs in their respective nations, although the framework they used to do that varied in different nations.