« Tuer le père ». Un exemple d'approche psycho-sociologique de la filiation mathématique de Gaspard Monge

Abstract

Jérôme Laurentin, «Killing the Father»: a Tentative Psycho Sociological Approach to the Mathematicians who Succeeded Gaspard Monge. The interdisciplinarity sought by the workshop was fostered by a number of historians and sociologists specialising in the sciences. However, it is full of pitfalls which arouse passions and trigger dissension, exacerbated more often than not by the fear of compromising scientific authority. Mindful of these apprehensions, I would nonetheless wish to go beyond a strictly internal survey of the work of Gaspard Monge's pupils, with a view to seeking in their relationships with the master, in the changes made to teaching practice, in a family romance disrupted by the Revolution, the rationale for a style and the choice of a whole range of mathematical research topics. This approach focusses on Michel- Ange Lancret and Charles- Julien Brianchon, two of the students most closely associated with Gaspard Monge by historical tradition. The manner in which they called into question his teaching will be highlighted and may help demonstrate that a study confined to their scientific treatises cannot fully account for the existence of an intellectual school. Some sociological and psychological indicators are briefly addressed, based on their own accounts and their scientific treatises, using the modern tools of scientometrics, in order to show that methodological relativism has a significant contribution to make, in the history of mathematics as well.