Monitoring the self: François-Marc-Louis Naville and his moral tables
Détails
ID Serval
serval:BIB_922E69452C33
Type
Article: article d'un périodique ou d'un magazine.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Titre
Monitoring the self: François-Marc-Louis Naville and his moral tables
Périodique
History of Science
ISSN
0073-2753
1753-8564
1753-8564
Statut éditorial
Publié
Date de publication
07/2020
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
58
Numéro
2
Pages
117-141
Langue
anglais
Résumé
This paper examines the self-measurement and self-tracking practices of a turn-of-thenineteenth-century Genevese pastor and pedagogical innovator, François-Marc-Louis Naville, who extensively used Benjamin Franklin’s tools of moral calculation and a lesser known tool, Marc-Antoine Jullien’s moral thermometer, to set a direction to his life and to monitor and improve his moral character. My contribution sheds light on how technologies of quantification molded notions of personal responsibility and character within an emerging utilitarian context. I situate Naville’s use of these tools within his work as a pastor in a parish of the (then occupied) Republic of Geneva and within the Genevese and Swiss pedagogical reform movement of the early nineteenth century. I provide a detailed examination of how Naville used and adapted Franklin’s and Jullien’s tools of moral accounting for his own moral and religious purposes. Time, God’s most precious gift to man, served Naville as the ultimate measure of his moral worth.
Mots-clé
History and Philosophy of Science, History
Pubmed
Web of science
Création de la notice
17/10/2019 23:09
Dernière modification de la notice
18/03/2022 7:33