Abstract
The article is a commentary to philosophical terms of David Hume’s “Of Essay Writing”, that became necessary in working on its Ukrainian translation. “Of Essay Writing” is an essay on conversation that was published in English in 1742 in the first edition of “Essays, Moral and Political” by D. Hume. The commentary focuses on two concepts that are important for understanding the content and cultural and historical context of an essay. First, the concept of “Republic of Letters” is considered. This Renaissance metaphor was in active use in the XV-XVIII centuries and described the conversational community of European intellectuals, formed by correspondent networks. In the age of Enlightenment, an alternative to correspondence was conversation in the newly formed public sphere of communication, concentrated in salons, clubs and other common social spaces. In his essay, D. Hume contrasts the concept of "Republic of Letters" with the concept of “Empire of Conversation”, emphasizing the difference between the worlds of “learned” and “conversible”, where “learned” use correspondence and “conversible” participate in public conversation. Secondly, this commentary examines the concept of "Belles Lettres" - a term of Renaissance origin, the part of humanists educational project “bonnae litterae”, which revealed the role of “studia humanitatis” (humanities) in shaping the aesthetics of writing (including letter writing). David Hume associate "Belles Lettres" with the concept of “taste”, which is a central category of his empiricist aesthetics. According to Hume, the taste comes from specific experience, the components of which are the humanities. At the same time, “Belles Lettres” requires the experience of conversation, and essay-writing is a means, which D. Hume proposes to use to spread the achievements of the “Republic of Letters” in the community of the “Empire of Conversation”.
Highlights
Пригадаємо, що в есеї «Про есеїстичне письменство» Девід Г’юм звинувачує belles lettres у тому, що воно стало варварським, оскільки створюється людьми без належного смаку: «every part of what we call Belles Lettres became totally barbarous, being cultivated by men without any taste for life or manners, and without that liberty and facility of thought and expression which can only be acquired by conversation» - «усе те, що ми називаємо Красним Письмом зробилося суцільно варварським, оскільки проваджувалося Людьми без щонайменшої Чутливості до Життя чи Вихованості, і без тієї Свободи і розкутості Думки і Висловлювання, які лише й можуть набуватися у Розмові». (Hume, 1987c: 534)
The Method of Teaching and Studying the Belles Lettres; or, an Introduction to Languages, Poetry, Rhetoric, History, Moral Philosophy, Physics &c
Summary
Д. Г’юм у своєму есеї протиставляє поняттю «Republic of Letters» поняття «Empire of Conversation» Водночас «Belles Lettres» для своєї реалізації вимагає досвіду безпосереднього спілкування, його засобом виступає есеїстичне письменство, яке Д. Ключові слова: красне письменство, республіка вчених, спілкування, смак, есеїстичне письменство, есеї, Девід Г’юм.
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More From: Bulletin of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Philosophy
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