‘Quarrels, Polemics and Controversies’
Third Annual I.S.I.H. Conference
Trinity College, Cambridge, U.K.
26-29 July 2001
The Theme of the Conference
THE INTELLECTUAL WORLD offers an ideal of tolerance, brotherhood and peace; far from being mere rhetoric, such an ideal was and is instrumental in many projects and their realisations. Nevertheless, from Antiquity to the present day, no field of knowledge, no area of learning, no discipline has escaped quarrels, polemics or controversies during its formation and diffusion. These quarrels have generated an enormous bibliography, but there is no modern, comprehensive study on this phenomenon. This conference offers a forum for a general enquiry into quarrels as a major form of expression and organisation of knowledge. What, it will ask, have been the status, place and functions of quarrels in the intellectual world?
Important axes for such an enquiry may include the following:
- Historiography and Discourse. Studies in this area may include research on: ancient works reporting or describing quarrels; concepts of polemics, quarrels, controversies, etc.; the vocabulary used in describing and reporting quarrels; the discursive modes used in works about quarrels; why people wrote about quarrels; and how a quarrel becomes an historio graphic object.
- Modes and Forms. Topics may include: the dynamics of a quarrel (from the initial outbreak to its conclusion; internal and external elements); difference of names and of forms; rituals; the place and role of violence (verbal, psychological or physical); specific "literary" genres produced or linked to quarrels (e.g. pamphlets, satires, etc.)
- Power-Games and Stakes. Studies may be based on: quarrels as an expression of power; as a means of controlling a discipline or of an institution; the role of national and nationalistic claims; priorities; personal pride and glory; financial or economic stakes.
- Actors and Judges. Questions in this area may include: how are parties in a quarrel formed (individuals, groups, followers, partisans, backers, etc.)? what kind of division and re-composition of the milieu is involved? who defines or resolves the issue of a quarrel? What are the roles of peers, learned institutions (e.g. academies, university boards), external institutions (e.g. law courts)?
- Orders of Knowledge. This may include studies on: debates over the positive or negative role of quarrels; quarrels and "tradition"; quarrels and "official science", and truth; quarrels and authority; quarrels as contributing to the definition of a field; polemic and proof; quarrels and ethics; theoretical or philosophical examination of the epistemological status of quarrels.
See further the Conference Programme.
