«Homo sum... ». Un vers de Térence comme devise des Lumières

Abstract

Michel Delon : Terence's "Homo sum..." as the enlightenment's motto. Terence's dictum can be taken, as much as Kant's sapere aude, as a slogan of the Enlightenment. It is found in Dumarsais's Le Philosophe and defines the new philosophy as optimism, the development of a lay morality and a reconciliation of aesthetics and ethics. The Enlightenment's interpretation of this phrase is very different both from the pessimism of Montaigne and the classical moralists and from the Christian interpretation of classical antiquity. The quotation, which is frequently found in reflections on tragedy and the novel, enabled moral solidarity and aesthetic pleasure to be based on the idea of identification.

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