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Mon, May 09 2011 15:55:47

The inventory of the possible (attributions)

  1. Last night I have been involved in an impromptu scavenger hunt for the correct attribution of a quote that has been circulating unchecked in anglophone books over the last 20 years. In particular, the attribution of the idea that a «great city should be "an inventory of the possible"» to Descartes went viral following a tweet by @timoreilly.

  2. timoreilly
    Descartes: a great city should be "an inventory of the possible" http://on.ft.com/lGANPM Insights/what makes a city great via @jamesoreilly
    timoreilly
    Sun, May 08 2011 12:59:04
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  3. The task to check whether the attribution was correct was taken over almost immediately by @tcarmody, and I and others were glad to use a late Sunday evening to help him out in the quest.
  4. tcarmody
    After fake-MLK-quote debacle, now looking for source of Descartes's city = inventory of the possible. So far finding only Kotkin, no cite.
    tcarmody
    Sun, May 08 2011 13:23:56
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  5. tcarmody
    Okay! Descartes quote is legit. It's a letter (don't know to whom), Oeuvres, vol. 1. p. 204, cited in Braudel http://j.mp/iOsJ45
    tcarmody
    Sun, May 08 2011 13:28:47
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  6. louije
    @tcarmody Can't find the actual quote, but from the page number it would be a letter to... Balzac (I know) : http://j.mp/kiwnSP
    louije
    Sun, May 08 2011 13:49:45
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  7. Chanders
    @tcarmody doesn't sound like Descartes to me, but I have no wisdom on that, just gut feeling.
    Chanders
    Sun, May 08 2011 13:28:33
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  8. tcarmody
    Oh no: I'm reading and re-reading the Oeuvres, and "inventory of the possible" just might be Braudel's phrase, not Descartes's.
    tcarmody
    Sun, May 08 2011 16:18:44
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  9. tcarmody
    Braudel (or his translator): "Amsterdam was, in Descartes' view, a sort of 'inventory of the possible'." Then quotes letter by Descartes. +
    tcarmody
    Sun, May 08 2011 16:31:31
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  10. tcarmody
    Trouble is, the letter cited, which DOES contain the second quote, doesn't seem to contain anything like the first. Grrrr.
    tcarmody
    Sun, May 08 2011 16:32:07
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  11. tcarmody
    @louije Hmm. I can't find the actual quote anywhere in that letter; don't know if my French is bad or the citation...
    tcarmody
    Sun, May 08 2011 16:12:46
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  12. tcarmody
    @louije It's definitely about how awesome Amsterdam is, but the phrase itself eludes me.
    tcarmody
    Sun, May 08 2011 16:13:11
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  13. wilkohardenberg
    @tcarmody it is not the translator's fault (http://t.co/DPxK4oR) and Braudel uses the phrase somewhere else unquoted (http://t.co/Nc7DThx)
    wilkohardenberg
    Sun, May 08 2011 17:51:20
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  14. tcarmody
    .@wilkohardenberg My feeling is that it's Braudel's phrase, not Descartes's.
    tcarmody
    Sun, May 08 2011 17:54:28
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  15. louije
    @tcarmody Then you, sir, have discovered another case of wishful quoting.
    louije
    Sun, May 08 2011 17:56:25
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  16. wilkohardenberg
    @tcarmody I'd say that Braudel has quoted poorly (heresy!!!) and that the quote should be attributed to him and not to Descartes
    wilkohardenberg
    Sun, May 08 2011 17:52:35
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  17. tcarmody
    .@wilkohardenberg @louije Oh, shit! Check this in a 1964 history by Louis Dermigny: http://j.mp/lWBUvZ
    tcarmody
    Sun, May 08 2011 17:58:36
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  18. wilkohardenberg
    .@tcarmody I think Dermigny quotes Braudel: both were at EPHE and I suppose the former was a student of the latter (http://www.jstor.org/pss/2718393)
    wilkohardenberg
    Sun, May 08 2011 18:30:40
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  19. EPHE being the Ecole practique des Hautes Etudes
  20. tcarmody
    @wilkohardenberg Alt possibility: Braudel deliberately quoted Dermigny (why phrase is in quotes), but footnoted the passage badly.
    tcarmody
    Sun, May 08 2011 18:33:23
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  21. tcarmody
    @wilkohardenberg Very strange that in both books it appears in connection w/Descartes. Somebody's glossing somebody there.
    tcarmody
    Sun, May 08 2011 18:49:34
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  22. wilkohardenberg
    @tcarmody in vol I of same book the phrase is not in quotes, in vol III it could be in quotes as a form of emphasis
    wilkohardenberg
    Sun, May 08 2011 18:48:11
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  23. tcarmody
    @wilkohardenberg So maybe the Braudel line is from an early article, quoted by Dermigny in 1964, then reused for a book in 1979?
    tcarmody
    Sun, May 08 2011 18:32:34
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  24. tcarmody
    @wilkohardenberg Complication: "inventoire du possible"/"inventoire des possibles" are surprisingly common phrases en français
    tcarmody
    Sun, May 08 2011 18:35:51
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  25. wilkohardenberg
    @tcarmody phrases are indeed common. But it seems strange that in Frenche nobody else beside Braudel derives them from Descartes...
    wilkohardenberg
    Sun, May 08 2011 18:52:32
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