15 UN DEBAT : LES MENTAUTES COLLECTIYES 571
rfiirrounds Ule earth and thought that> nobody eaii live beyond the eiiuator linę ; they hiul no idea of America or Ihe othcr torritorie* in the Southern oe 2s'oithcrxi regions, neither did tliey know the diinensions of the grent globe or how the magnet* Work at the pole*. Ajid tlius, for many oenturies they lived with no knowledge”. The news eoncerningthe African or Asian peoples’ ways of life were not thought to bo as impoitant as those coiioernlrg the life of the “enlightened” soeictios in whicli indmdual e.visteneo was woli proteuted again-st the asMiult of diseases and ealamitios and the hiunan rclntionship.s did no longer rcly on old pririleges, but on ruies inspirod by justiee and mutual rcspect. TJie lesults of seientific researcheK and intelleetual debat es and all the materiał improvemeutH madę in dnhghtened sacietlcs weic constantly piaised tlius sliadowing not ouly.social eontiadietions whicli were stillto belound in those soeieties but also the lengthy cultural proces* winek. had led to such rcsuLlK. 'ihe praise wolit liaml in hnnd with a reeomfnendntion to act in a similar way. The impnlsc to reuovate proridcd by tliis image did not encourage, at the samo timo, a keener inrestigation of lite conditiomt and of the intelleetual roots of seientific activities in foreign socloties; as a nialter of fart, ethnologieal and nnthropologicnl researches oniy started all ovor tlie world pt tJiat time. But tliis image which was going to ijuroase its power pf apt i on equajly led to the sUengthening of the nation’s effoyts with a view to couąucjing new life conditions and to the iniitption of “the adyanced worki”, p. world of prpsperity in which social stmggle secmęd to ]bq i,nexi,stent. Tki,s tendeucy to jmitale blunUy wras. prinuuily obvioa» )vith the boyap> and the a^cending tniddle^class.
Theiculightene^ Europo, uSuallyl located in Central Europo arid fiom Yiennato the Atlantic c:oinpelled,j ecognition throngh hlie intiilcotual progres* mado by materiałreseaiekefc and especially tłmmgk the improve-monts teohitieal nesults brought to daily life* In 1Z73, Gaviil Callimaclii prahsod in thiFpsenSo “the keem minds of the philofiopkoijs” in European aoadejnies wlio “Searched deep into the seerets of naturę”, wliile Ckesarie o£ Biinnicioresaw tho biid li of a Europę ófna/fcions. Grigore JRimniceaniiTB preiface to the Ąriodijan of 1798 praised Europę as “the jewel o£ tho world’?. With theiTransylranian hitelleotuals this orientation went hand in hand with sy&tematic bonowings preferably fiom the German Auf-klarung. They aiulod at a larger scalę of - actirities —■ ranging fronl hygiene to the raising of silkworms and from the figlit against fires to the petfectioningof tiul erafts — and at d re-orientation of knowledge and not u mero feries of adaptationsj S unuil Hicu provided in tliis seute the ezamplu of tlie “Gernians, Ituliaus, Fieneh, English, etc., wlio liave all the scieuces in tbeir own langnago”. The large cultliml development foliowing the model of dereloped societics aimedat an inereased wellare and at social aelatiouships ba sod on fair law*. Tliat was why Baimiil reeommendation went on in the samo teims : tlie Bomaniann sliould obserre “tliose things which contributc to the morał progress of a nation and the common happiness and they sliould look to tlie great and wise nations and iollow them and get lcarning in tlicir own language and will thus beoome liappier and morę famous”. (Scuria cunostiv}d). The consciousntss of the translation of studics from Atliens and Eonie to the North-West countries of the continent triggered off cnnilation but
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