Ethical Rationalism And Secularisation In The British Enlightenment

Author : Dafydd Mills Daniel
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 351 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2020-10-22
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783030522032

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Ethical Rationalism and Secularisation in the British Enlightenment by Dafydd Mills Daniel Pdf

This book reassesses the ethics of reason in the Age of the Reason, making use of the neglected category of conscience. Arguing that conscience was a central feature of British Enlightenment ethical rationalism, the book explores the links between Enlightenment philosophy and modern secularisation, while responding to longstanding criticisms of rational intuitionism and the analogy between mathematics and morals, derived from David Hume and Immanuel Kant. Questioning in what sense British Enlightenment ethical rationalism can be associated with a secularising ‘Enlightenment project’, Daniel investigates the extent to which contemporary, and secular liberal, invocations of reason and conscience rely on the early modern Christian metaphysics they have otherwise disregarded. The chapters cover a rich collection of subjects, ranging from the Enlightenment’s secular legacy, reason and conscience in the history of ethics, and controversies in the Scottish Enlightenment, to the role of British moralists such as John Locke, Joseph Butler and Adam Smith in the secularisation of reason and conscience. Each chapter expertly refines Enlightenment ethical rationalism by reinterpreting its most influential proponents in eighteenth-century Britain – the followers of ‘Isaac Newton’s bulldog’ Samuel Clarke – including Richard Price (Edmund Burke’s opponent over the French Revolution) and John Witherspoon (the only clergyman to sign the US declaration of Independence).

Author : Anna Tomaszewska,Hasse Hämäläinen
Publisher : Springer
Page : 323 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2017-10-05
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9783319653945

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The Sources of Secularism by Anna Tomaszewska,Hasse Hämäläinen Pdf

This book examines the importance of the Enlightenment for understanding the secular outlook of contemporary Western societies. It shows the new ways of thinking about religion that emerged during the 17th and 18th centuries and have had a great impact on how we address problems related to religion in the public sphere today. Based on the assumption that political concepts are rooted in historical realities, this collection combines the perspective of political philosophy with the perspective of the history of ideas. Does secularism imply that individuals are not free to manifest their beliefs in public? Is secularization the same as rejecting faith in the absolute? Can there be a universal rational core in every religion? Does freedom of expression always go hand in hand with freedom of conscience? Is secularism an invention of the predominantly Christian West, which cannot be applied in other contexts, specifically that of Muslim cultures? Answers to these and related questions are sought not only in current theories and debates in political philosophy, but also in the writings of Immanuel Kant, Benedict Spinoza, Thomas Hobbes, Anthony Collins, Adriaan Koerbagh, Abbé Claude Yvon, Giovanni Paolo Marana, and others.

Author : Michael B. Gill
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 266 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2006-07-31
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781139458290

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The British Moralists on Human Nature and the Birth of Secular Ethics by Michael B. Gill Pdf

Uncovering the historical roots of naturalistic, secular contemporary ethics, in this volume Michael Gill shows how the British moralists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries completed a Copernican revolution in moral philosophy. They effected a shift from thinking of morality as independent of human nature to thinking of it as part of human nature itself. He also shows how the British Moralists - sometimes inadvertently, sometimes by design - disengaged ethical thinking, first from distinctly Christian ideas and then from theistic commitments altogether. Examining in detail the arguments of Whichcote, Cudworth, Shaftesbury, and Hutcheson against Calvinist conceptions of original sin and egoistic conceptions of human motivation, Gill also demonstrates how Hume combined the ideas of earlier British moralists with his own insights to produce an account of morality and human nature that undermined some of his predecessors' most deeply held philosophical goals.

Author : William Gibson
Publisher : James Clarke & Company
Page : 537 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2022-03-31
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780227906545

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Enlightenment Prelate by William Gibson Pdf

A reappraisal of the legacy of Benjamin Hoadly, the 18th Century bishop whose liberal and rationalist views had a considerable influence on the English Enlightenment and the American Revolution.

Author : Riccardo Bonfiglioli
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 226 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2024-06-02
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9783031567797

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Human Nature, Mind and the Self in Adam Smith’s Moral Philosophy by Riccardo Bonfiglioli Pdf

Author : Louise Hickman
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 212 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2017-05-12
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781317228523

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Eighteenth-Century Dissent and Cambridge Platonism by Louise Hickman Pdf

Eighteenth-Century Dissent and Cambridge Platonism identifies an ethically and politically engaged philosophy of religion in eighteenth century Rational Dissent, particularly in the work of Richard Price (1723-1791), and in the radical thought of Mary Wollstonecraft. It traces their ethico-political account of reason, natural theology and human freedom back to seventeenth century Cambridge Platonism and thereby shows how popular histories of the philosophy of religion in modernity have been over-determined both by analytic philosophy of religion and by its critics. The eighteenth century has typically been portrayed as an age of reason, defined as a project of rationalism, liberalism and increasing secularisation, leading inevitably to nihilism and the collapse of modernity. Within this narrative, the Rational Dissenters have been accused of being the culmination of eighteenth-century rationalism in Britain, epitomising the philosophy of modernity. This book challenges this reading of history by highlighting the importance of teleology, deiformity, the immutability of goodness and the divinity of reason within the tradition of Rational Dissent, and it demonstrates that the philosophy and ethics of both Price and Wollstonecraft are profoundly theological. Price’s philosophy of political liberty, and Wollstonecraft’s feminism, both grounded in a Platonic conception of freedom, are perfectionist and radical rather than liberal. This has important implications for understanding the political nature of eighteenth-century philosophical theology: these thinkers represent not so much a shaking off of religion by secular rationality but a challenge to religious and political hegemony. By distinguishing Price and Wollstonecraft from other forms of rationalism including deism and Socinianism, this book takes issue with the popular division of eighteenth-century philosophy into rationalistic and empirical strands and, through considering the legacy of Cambridge Platonism, draws attention to an alternative philosophy of religion that lies between both empiricism and discursive inference.

Author : Stephen Darwall
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 399 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2023-05-31
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781009380614

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Modern Moral Philosophy by Stephen Darwall Pdf

In this magisterial study, one of our leading moral philosophers refutes the charge (originally made by Elizabeth Anscombe) that modern ethics is incoherent because it essentially depends on theological and religious assumptions that it cannot acknowledge. Stephen Darwall's panoramic picture starts with the seventeenth-century thinker Grotius and tells the story continuously down to the time of Kant, exploring what was in fact a completely new way of doing ethics based on secular ideas of human psychology and universal accountability. He shows that thinkers from Grotius to Kant are profoundly united by this modern approach, and that it helped them to create a theory of natural human rights that remains of great political relevance today. He further shows that this new way of thinking provides conceptual resources that are far from exhausted, and that moral philosophy in this idiom still has a vibrant future.

Author : R.J.W. Mills
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 137 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2021-09-20
Category : History
ISBN : 9783030843236

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The Religious Innatism Debate in Early Modern Britain by R.J.W. Mills Pdf

This book demonstrates that the common belief that humanity is naturally disposed to religion did not disappear with the emergence of the Enlightenment. Going beyond a narrow focus on John Locke’s empiricism, this vivid analysis reconstructs the vociferous, multivocal debate over the natural origins of religious belief in England and Scotland between c. 1650 and c. 1750. It enriches our understanding through examining hundreds of discussions of the relationship between human nature and religion, from a variety of genres and contexts. It shows that belief in religious innatism was a ubiquitous and enduring claim about human nature across the continuum of Christian thought in early modern Britain, and one deployed for a variety of reasons. While the doctrine of innate religious ideas did fall out of use, the belief that human nature was framed for religion continued in new forms into the eighteenth century.

Author : Knud Haakonssen
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 370 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 1996-05-30
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780521560603

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Enlightenment and Religion by Knud Haakonssen Pdf

This book makes a comprehensive reassessment of the relationship between Enlightenment and religion in England. The debate about an 'English' Enlightenment has centred on the role of religion, especially the relationship between the established Anglican Church and the dissenting confessions. It has long been accepted that liberal, rational dissenters developed an Enlightenment agenda, but most literature on this topic is quite out of date. These interdisciplinary essays provide a fresh analysis of rational dissent within English Enlightenment culture. Equally, they contribute to the debate over eighteenth-century religion and its social, political and intellectual meaning, focusing on the Irish and Scottish contributions to English dissent. Its wide perspective and research make Enlightenment and Religion an important and original contribution to eighteenth-century studies.

Author : Edwina Pio,Robert Kilpatrick,Peter Lineham
Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing
Page : 167 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2024-02-12
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781035313686

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Religious-Spiritual Diversity in Organisations by Edwina Pio,Robert Kilpatrick,Peter Lineham Pdf

Challenges involved in the interplay between religion and business are incredibly complex, and as such this book thoughtfully considers the critical issue of inclusion and how employers should view its importance. Whilst exploring the intricacies of organised religion, it investigates how mindful religious wisdom can be harmoniously applied within corporate and not for profit environments.

Author : Peter Harrison
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 483 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2024-04-18
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781009477260

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Some New World by Peter Harrison Pdf

In his famous argument against miracles, David Hume gets to the heart of the modern problem of supernatural belief. 'We are apt', says Hume, 'to imagine ourselves transported into some new world; where the whole form of nature is disjointed, and every element performs its operation in a different manner, from what it does at present.' This encapsulates, observes Peter Harrison, the disjuncture between contemporary Western culture and medieval societies. In the Middle Ages, people saw the hand of God at work everywhere. Indeed, many suppose that 'belief in the supernatural' is likewise fundamental nowadays to religious commitment. But dichotomising between 'naturalism' and 'supernaturalism' is actually a relatively recent phenomenon, just as the notion of 'belief' emerged historically late. In this masterful contribution to intellectual history, the author overturns crucial misconceptions – 'myths' – about secular modernity, challenging common misunderstandings of the past even as he reinvigorates religious thinking in the present.

Author : Immanuel Kant
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 1949
Category : Ethics
ISBN : OCLC:78616545

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Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals by Immanuel Kant Pdf

Author : Wayne Hudson
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2015-09-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9781317316060

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Enlightenment and Modernity by Wayne Hudson Pdf

The writers known as the English deists were not simply religious controversialists, but agents of reform who contributed to the emergence of modernity. This title claims that these writers advocated a failed ideology which itself declined after 1730. It argues for an evolution of their ideas into a more modern form.

Author : Richard Sandell,Eithne Nightingale
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 468 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2013-05-20
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781136318696

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Museums, Equality and Social Justice by Richard Sandell,Eithne Nightingale Pdf

The last two decades have seen concerns for equality, diversity, social justice and human rights move from the margins of museum thinking and practice, to the core. The arguments – both moral and pragmatic – for engaging diverse audiences, creating the conditions for more equitable access to museum resources, and opening up opportunities for participation, now enjoy considerable consensus in many parts of the world. A growing number of institutions are concerned to construct new narratives that represent a plurality of lived experiences, histories and identities which aim to nurture support for more progressive, ethically-informed ways of seeing and to actively inform contemporary public debates on often contested rights-related issues. At the same time it would be misleading to suggest an even and uncontested transition from the museum as an organisation that has been widely understood to marginalise, exclude and oppress to one which is wholly inclusive. Moreover, there are signs that momentum towards making museums more inclusive and equitable is slowing down or, in some contexts, reversing. Museums, Equality and Social Justice aims to reflect on and, crucially, to inform debates in museum research, policy and practice at this critical time. It brings together new research from academics and practitioners and insights from artists, activists, and commentators to explore the ways in which museums, galleries and heritage organisations are engaging with the fast-changing equalities terrain and the shifting politics of identity at global, national and local levels and to investigate their potential to contribute to more equitable, fair and just societies.

Author : Roy Porter
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 776 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : History
ISBN : 0393048721

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The Creation of the Modern World by Roy Porter Pdf

From a critically acclaimed author comes an engagingly written and groundbreaking new work that highlights the long-underestimated British role in delivering the Enlightenment to the modern world. Porter reveals how the monumental transformation of thinking in Great Britain influenced wider developments elsewhere. of color illustrations.