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The role of paternity in the construction of masculinities in the eighteenth century was preponderant. In learned circles, the staging of a tender and enlightened paternity became a feature of elegiac discourse from 1750 onwards. Such a depiction offers insights into the way in which the “educated” could present themselves as “recommendable men”. By analyzing some fifty eulogies from the Academy of Montpellier, compared with first-person writings by three scholars (Pierre-Joseph Amoreux, André-Marie Ampère and Alexandre Brongniart), it is possible to highlight two discourses operating in parallel. These two discourses that exemplified in this staging of learned masculinity are, on the one hand, that of the learned man as a good father, admired by his sons, and on the other, that of an independent masculinity molded by accounts of scientists who opposed their father, or had no descendants. The coexistence of these discourses demonstrates the malleability of masculinities in the foundation of male social privileges. The discourse on fathers thus offers the image of a learned man useful to society through his practices of reproducing an “educated’’ masculinity. This masculinity claims to be based on reason, civility and sociability, and is rooted in an embodiment of authority that allows one to shed the fragile and suffering image of masculinity sometimes associated with scholars.