Langage et politique chez Jean de Salisbury : les fondements du lien social

Abstract

John of Salisbury is well known as a being one

of the most important medieval political thinker and a

sharp defender of the liberal arts. But these two aspects of

his philosophy are rarely connected. This paper aims at

examining how the defence of the trivium is included in

political project. Indeed, language is both a mean which

allows to gather the men in a society ; and, mainly by its

affective dimension, a way of dividing them (especially

through flattery). This twofold aspect of language is at the

heart of John of Salisbury’s political project.