Abélard et le bâtisseur de Saint-Denis. Études parallèles d'histoire des disciplines

Abstract

Abelard and the Builder of St.-Denis: Parallel Studies in the History of Disciplines. ; ; This article suggests that the history of philosophy and architecture in the eleventh and twelfth centuries can fruitfully be seen as a process of discipline formation. In each case, specialists moved from preserving specific skills or ancient learning to solving new problems or creating new artistic forms; they also devised the intellectual means of meeting this objective. Illustrating this point are the examples of Abelard and his contemporary, the master builder of Suger's St.-Denis, whose works are compared from the point of view of the cognitive processes by which they solved the technical problems of their respective disciplines.