Yennah, R.2013-01-032017-10-142013-01-032017-10-142012Sophia : Revue du Laboratoire de littérature comparée (001) 19-32.http://197.255.68.203/handle/123456789/2343This paper proposes to today’s researcher a historical, philosophical and literary perspective of research methodology, based on the reflection of some enlightened minds of the Age of Enlightenment in France (beginning 1600 to late 1700). It argues that by way of proposing to the researcher an intellectual posture and a method for directing the mind, the Enlightenment philosophers such as Descartes, Fontenelle, Voltaire and Rousseau, resorted to justifications and arguments that were particularly striking and therefore enabled one to better apprehend the depth and import of a proper research methodology. The paper provides insights about the special importance the Age of Enlightenment gave to research methodology, at a time when, following the renaissance, there remained the need to clear the minds of the general public of some measure of obscurantism. These intellectual research methods, still valid today, were particularly applied to the search for truth, which for those times, naturally and happily led to the condemnation of aberrations, fanaticism, intolerance, prejudices and all manner of atrocities committed, especially by institutions: the State and the Church.enEnlightenmentmethodologyresearchtruthaberrationArticle