Renan elevated philology to the exact science of mental objects.

Evidence

To do philosophy is to know things; following Cuvier’s nice phrase, philosophy is instructing the world in theory. Like Kant I believe that every purely speculative demonstration has no more validity than a mathematical demonstration, and can teach us nothing about existing reality. Philology is the exact science of mental objects [La philologie est la science exacte des choses de l’esprit]. It is to the sciences of humanity what physics and chemistry are to the philosophic sciences of bodies. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 354

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Renan’s key epistemic move: treating philology as the physics/chemistry of the human sciences — the model by which texts of alien cultures become objects of exact knowledge.
• XREF: This ‘exact science of mental objects’ is the epistemic ground for later Orientalist claims to authoritative knowledge of Islam — the philological laboratory that produces the ‘rational’ Other.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 354