The Skeptical Enlightenment

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The Skeptical Enlightenment

Jeffrey D. Burson,Anton M. Matytsin
The Skeptical Enlightenment Book PDF

Author : Jeffrey D. Burson,Anton M. Matytsin
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 246 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2019-03-31
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1786941945

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The Skeptical Enlightenment by Jeffrey D. Burson,Anton M. Matytsin Pdf

Althoughmany historical narratives often describe the eighteenth century as an unalloyed'Age of Reason', Enlightenment thinkers continued to grapple with thechallenges posed by the revival and spread of philosophical skepticism. Theimperative to overcome doubt and uncertainty informed some of the mostinnovative characteristics of eighteenth-century intellectual culture,including not only debates about epistemology and metaphysics but also mattersof jurisprudence, theology, history, moral philosophy, and politics. Thinkersof this period debated about, established, and productively worked for progresswithin the parameters of the increasingly circumscribed boundaries of humanreason. No longer considered innate and consistently perfect, reason insteadbecame conceived as a faculty that was inherently fallible, limited by personalexperiences, and in need of improvement throughout the course of anyindividual's life. In its depictionof a complicated, variegated, and diverse Enlightenment culture, this volume examines the process by whichphilosophical skepticism was challenged and gradually tamed to bring about ananxious confidence in the powers of human understanding. The variouscontributions collectively demonstrate that philosophical skepticism, andnot simply unshakable confidence in the powers of reason or the optimisticassumption about inevitable human improvement, was, in fact, the crucible ofthe Enlightenment process itself.

The Skeptical Enlightenment

Jeffrey D. Burson
The Skeptical Enlightenment Book PDF

Author : Jeffrey D. Burson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2019
Category : Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800
ISBN : 1789625009

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The Skeptical Enlightenment by Jeffrey D. Burson Pdf

Although many historical narratives often describe the eighteenth century as an unalloyed 'Age of Reason', Enlightenment thinkers continued to grapple with the challenges posed by the revival and spread of philosophical skepticism. The imperative to overcome doubt and uncertainty informed some of the most innovative characteristics of eighteenth-century intellectual culture, including not only debates about epistemology and metaphysics but also matters of jurisprudence, theology, history, moral philosophy, and politics. Thinkers of this period debated about, established, and productively worked for progress within the parameters of the increasingly circumscribed boundaries of human reason. No longer considered innate and consistently perfect, reason instead became conceived as a faculty that was inherently fallible, limited by personal experiences, and in need of improvement throughout the course of any individual's life. In its depiction of a complicated, variegated, and diverse Enlightenment culture, this volume examines the process by which philosophical skepticism was challenged and gradually tamed to bring about an anxious confidence in the powers of human understanding. The various contributions collectively demonstrate that philosophical skepticism, and not simply unshakable confidence in the powers of reason or the optimistic assumption about inevitable human improvement, was, in fact, the crucible of the Enlightenment process itself. 'All in all, this is a volume which should be read by every scholar of the eighteenth century, of the history of ideas, and of the history of religion.''The editors are to be congratulated for bringing to fruition this volume of essays, and for making a clear and convincing argument for the importance of skepticism in the Enlightenment.'Dorinda Outram, H-France Review H-France Review Jeffrey D. Burson is Associate Professor of French History and the Enlightenment at Georgia Southern University. He is the author of 'The Rise and Fall of Theological Enlightenment: Jean-Martin de Prades and Ideological Polarization in Eighteenth-Century France' (University of Notre Dame Press, 2010), and 'The Culture of Enlightening and the Entangled Life of Abbé Claude Yvon' (University of Notre Dame Press, 2019), in addition to numerous articles and chapters in edited collections of essays. He is co-editor, with Ulrich L. Lehner, of 'Enlightenment and Catholicism in Europe: A Transnational History' (University of Notre Dame Press, 2014) and, with Jonathan Wright, of 'The Jesuit Suppression in Global Context: Causes, Events, and Consequences' (Cambridge University Press, 2015). Anton M. Matytsin is Assistant Professor of European History at Kenyon College. He is the author of 'The Specter of Skepticism in the Age of Enlightenment' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016) and co-editor, with Dan Edelstein, of 'Let There Be Enlightenment: The Religious and Mystical Sources of Rationality' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018).

The Specter of Skepticism in the Age of Enlightenment

Anton M. Matytsin
The Specter of Skepticism in the Age of Enlightenment Book PDF

Author : Anton M. Matytsin
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 377 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2016-10-26
Category : History
ISBN : 9781421420523

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The Specter of Skepticism in the Age of Enlightenment by Anton M. Matytsin Pdf

8. A Matter of Debate: Conceptions of Material Substance in the Scientific Revolution -- 9. War of the Worlds: Cartesian Vortices and Newtonian Gravitation in Eighteenth-Century Astronomy -- 10. Historical Pyrrhonism and Its Discontents -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z

The Specter of Skepticism in the Age of Enlightenment

Anton M. Matytsin
The Specter of Skepticism in the Age of Enlightenment Book PDF

Author : Anton M. Matytsin
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 377 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2016-10-26
Category : History
ISBN : 9781421420530

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The Specter of Skepticism in the Age of Enlightenment by Anton M. Matytsin Pdf

Enlightenment confidence in the power of human reason was earned by grappling with the challenge of philosophical skepticism. The ancient Greek philosophy of Pyrrhonian skepticism spread across a wide spectrum of disciplines in the 1600s, casting a shadow over the European learned world. The early modern skeptics expressed doubt concerning the existence of an objective reality independent of human perception. They also questioned long-standing philosophical assumptions and, at times, undermined the foundations of political, moral, and religious authorities. How did eighteenth-century scholars overcome this skeptical crisis of confidence to usher in the so-called Age of Reason? In The Specter of Skepticism in the Age of Enlightenment, Anton Matytsin describes how skeptical rhetoric forced philosophers to formulate the principles and assumptions that they found to be certain or, at the very least, highly probable. In attempting to answer the deep challenge of philosophical skepticism, these thinkers explicitly articulated the rules for attaining true and certain knowledge and defined the boundaries beyond which human understanding could not venture. Matytsin explains the dialectical outcome of the philosophical disputes between the skeptics and their various opponents in France, the Dutch Republic, Switzerland, and Prussia. He shows that these exchanges transformed skepticism by mitigating its arguments while broadening the learned world’s confidence in the capacities of reason by moderating its aspirations. Ultimately, the debates about the powers and limits of human understanding led to the making of a new conception of rationality that privileged practicable reason over speculative reason. Matytsin also complicates common narratives about the Enlightenment by demonstrating that most of the thinkers who defended reason from skeptical critiques were religiously devout. By attempting either to preserve or to reconstruct the foundations of their worldviews and systems of thought, they became important agents of intellectual change and formulated new criteria of doubt and certainty. This complex and engaging book offers a powerful new explanation of how Enlightenment thinkers came to understand the purposes and the boundaries of rational inquiry.

Scepticism in the Eighteenth Century: Enlightenment, Lumières, Aufklärung

Sébastien Charles,Plínio J. Smith
Scepticism in the Eighteenth Century Enlightenment Lumi res Aufkl rung Book PDF

Author : Sébastien Charles,Plínio J. Smith
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 381 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2014-07-08
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9789400748101

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Scepticism in the Eighteenth Century: Enlightenment, Lumières, Aufklärung by Sébastien Charles,Plínio J. Smith Pdf

The Age of Enlightenment has often been portrayed as a dogmatic period on account of the veritable worship of reason and progress that characterized Eighteenth Century thinkers. Even today the philosophes are considered to have been completely dominated in their thinking by an optimism that leads to dogmatism and ultimately rationalism. However, on closer inspection, such a conception seems untenable, not only after careful study of the impact of scepticism on numerous intellectual domains in the period, but also as a result of a better understanding of the character of the Enlightenment. As Giorgio Tonelli has rightly observed: “the Enlightenment was indeed the Age of Reason but one of the main tasks assigned to reason in that age was to set its own boundaries.” Thus, given the growing number of works devoted to the scepticism of Enlightenment thinkers, historians of philosophy have become increasingly aware of the role played by scepticism in the Eighteenth Century, even in those places once thought to be most given to dogmatism, especially Germany. Nevertheless, the deficiencies of current studies of Enlightenment scepticism are undeniable. In taking up this question in particular, the present volume, which is entirely devoted to the scepticism of the Enlightenment in both its historical and geographical dimensions, seeks to provide readers with a revaluation of the alleged decline of scepticism. At the same time it attempts to resituate the Pyrrhonian heritage within its larger context and to recapture the fundamental issues at stake. The aim is to construct an alternative conception of Enlightenment philosophy, by means of philosophical modernity itself, whose initial stages can be found herein. ​

Hume's Sceptical Enlightenment

Ryu Susato
Hume s Sceptical Enlightenment Book PDF

Author : Ryu Susato
Publisher : Edinburgh University Press
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2015-09-10
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780748699810

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Hume's Sceptical Enlightenment by Ryu Susato Pdf

Demonstrates the uniqueness of Hume as an Enlightenment thinker, illustrating how his 'spirit of scepticism' often leads him into seemingly paradoxical positions. This book will be of interest to Hume scholars, intellectual historians of 17th- to 19th-century Europe and those interested in the Enlightenment more widely.

The Dialectic of Counter-Enlightenment

Christian Thorne
The Dialectic of Counter Enlightenment Book PDF

Author : Christian Thorne
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 398 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2010-05-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0674054733

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The Dialectic of Counter-Enlightenment by Christian Thorne Pdf

In this wide-ranging, ambitious, and engaging study, Christian Thorne confronts the history and enduring legacy of anti-foundationalist thought. Anti-foundationalism--the skeptical line of thought that contends our beliefs cannot be authoritatively grounded and that most of what passes for knowledge is a sham--has become one of the dominant positions in contemporary criticism. Thorne argues that despite its ascendance, anti-foundationalism is wrong. In The Dialectic of Counter-Enlightenment, he uses deft readings of a range of texts to offer new perspectives on the ongoing clash between philosophy and comprehensive doubt. The problem with anti-foundationalism is not, as is often thought, that it radiates uncertainty or will unglue the university, but instead that it is a system of thought--with set habits that generate unearned certainties. The shelves are full of histories of modern philosophy, but the history of the resistance to philosophical thought remains to be told. At its heart, The Dialectic of Counter-Enlightenment is a plea not to take doubt at its word--a plea for the return of a vanished philosophical intelligence and for the retirement of an anti-Enlightenment thinking that commits, over and over again, the very crimes that it lays at Enlightenment's door.

The Skeptical Tradition Around 1800

J. van der Zande,R.H. Popkin
The Skeptical Tradition Around 1800 Book PDF

Author : J. van der Zande,R.H. Popkin
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 468 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2013-03-14
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9789401734653

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The Skeptical Tradition Around 1800 by J. van der Zande,R.H. Popkin Pdf

In the early 1980s the late Charles B. Schmitt and I discussed the fact that so much new research and new interpretations were taking place concerning various areas of modem skepticism that we, as pioneers, ought to organize a conference where these new findings and outlooks could be presented and discussed. Charles and I had both visited the great library at Wolfenbiittel, and were most happy when the Herzog August Bibliothek agreed to host the first conference on the history of skepticism, in 1984 (published as Skepticism from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, ed. R. H. Popkin and Charles B. Schmitt [Wiesbaden, 1987, Wolfenbiitteler For schungen, vol. 35]) Charles and I projected a series of later conferences, the first of which would deal with skepticism and irreligion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Unfortunately, however, Charles died suddenly in 1986, while lecturing in Padua. Subsequent to his death Constance Blackwell, his companion of many years, established the Foundation for Intellectual History to support research and publica tion on topics in the history of ideas that continued Schmitt's interests. One of the first ventures was to arrange and fund the already planned conference on skepticism and irreligion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. After many difficulties and problems, the conference was sponsored and funded by the Foundation for Intel lectual History, one of its first public activities. It was held at the lovely facilities of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in Wassenaar in 1990.

Skepticism and Political Thought in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

John Christian Laursen,Gianni Paganini
Skepticism and Political Thought in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Book PDF

Author : John Christian Laursen,Gianni Paganini
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2015-02-26
Category : History
ISBN : 9781442619739

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Skepticism and Political Thought in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries by John Christian Laursen,Gianni Paganini Pdf

In this collection, thirteen distinguished contributors examine the influence of the ancient skeptical philosophy of Pyrrho of Elis and Sextus Empiricus on early modern political thought. Classical skepticism argues that in the absence of certainty one must either suspend judgment and live by habit or act on the basis of probability rather than certainty. In either case, one must reject dogmatic confidence in politics and philosophy. Surveying the use of skepticism in works by Hobbes, Descartes, Hume, Smith, and Kant, among others, the essays in Skepticism and Political Thought in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries demonstrate the pervasive impact of skepticism on the intellectual landscape of early modern Europe. This volume is not just an authoritative account of skepticism’s importance from the Enlightenment to the French Revolution, it is also the basis for understanding skepticism’s continuing political implications.

The Enlightenment in America

Henry Farnham May
The Enlightenment in America Book PDF

Author : Henry Farnham May
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 430 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 1978
Category : History
ISBN : IND:30000039057728

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The Enlightenment in America by Henry Farnham May Pdf

Throughout the book he relates the Enlightenment to Protestant Christianity, for it is out of the clashes and reconciliations between those two systems that 19th-century American culture--a culture that lasted almost to our own time--took shape. Defined so broadly, the religion of Enlightenment obviously included many different kinds of people--deists and skeptics and liberal Christians, aristocrats and democrats, conservatives and revolutionaries. May divides the European Enlightenment into four major categories, and shows how each had a different effect in America. Obviously some ideas could be transmitted more easily than others to a society overwhelmingly Protestant and rapidly becoming democratic. May shows how the Enlightenment affected the thoughts and actions of major figures like Jefferson, Franklin, and John Adams, but these familiar figures are treated against a background of less well-known people--doctors and ministers, scientists and planters and politicians.

Styles of Enlightenment

Elena Russo
Styles of Enlightenment Book PDF

Author : Elena Russo
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2007-01-19
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780801896101

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Styles of Enlightenment by Elena Russo Pdf

Styles of Enlightenment argues that alongside its democratic ideals and its efforts to create a unified public sphere, the Enlightenment also displayed a tendency to erect rigid barriers when it came to matters of style and artistic expression. The French philosophes tackled the issue of the hierarchy of genres with surprising inflexibility, and they looked down on those forms of art that they saw as commercial, popular, and merely entertaining. They were convinced that the standard of taste was too important a matter to be left to the whims of the public and the vagaries of the marketplace: aesthetic judgment ought to belong to a few, enlightened minds who would then pass it on to the masses. Through readings of fictions, essays, memoirs, eulogies, and theatrical works by Fénelon, Bouhours, Marivaux, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, Mercier, Thomas, and others, Styles of Enlightenment traces the stages of a confrontation between the virile philosophe and the effeminate worldly writer, "good" and "bad" taste, high art and frivolous entertainment, state patronage and the privately sponsored marketplace, the academic eulogy and worldly conversation. It teases out the finer points of division on the public battlefields of literature and politics and the new world of contesting sexual economies.

The Enlightenment

Dan Edelstein
The Enlightenment Book PDF

Author : Dan Edelstein
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2010-12-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9780226184500

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The Enlightenment by Dan Edelstein Pdf

What was the Enlightenment? Though many scholars have attempted to solve this riddle, none has made as much use of contemporary answers as Dan Edelstein does here. In seeking to recover where, when, and how the concept of “the Enlightenment” first emerged, Edelstein departs from genealogies that trace it back to political and philosophical developments in England and the Dutch Republic. According to Edelstein, by the 1720s scholars and authors in France were already employing a constellation of terms—such as l’esprit philosophique—to describe what we would today call the Enlightenment. But Edelstein argues that it was within the French Academies, and in the context of the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns, that the key definition, concepts, and historical narratives of the Enlightenment were crafted. A necessary corrective to many of our contemporary ideas about the Enlightenment, Edelstein’s book turns conventional thinking about the period on its head. Concise, clear, and contrarian, The Enlightenment will be welcomed by all teachers and students of the period.

Toward a New Enlightenment

Paul Kurtz
Toward a New Enlightenment Book PDF

Author : Paul Kurtz
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 401 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2018-04-17
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781351294386

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Toward a New Enlightenment by Paul Kurtz Pdf

Paul Kurtz has been the dominant voice of secular humanism over the past thirty years. This compilation of his work reveals the scope of his thinking on the basic topics of our time and his many and varied contributions to the cause of free thought. It focuses on the central issues that have concerned Kurtz throughout his career: ethics, politics, education, religion, science, and pseudoscience. The chapters are linked by a common theme: the need for a new enlightenment, one committed to the use of rationality and skepticism, but also devoted to realizing the highest values of humanist culture. Many writings included here were first published in magazines and journals long unavailable. Some of the essays have never before been published. They now appear as a coherent whole for the first time. Also included is an extensive bibliography of Kurtz's writings. Toward a New Enlightenment is essential for those who know and admire Paul Kurtz's work. It will also be an important resource for students of philosophy, political science, ethics, and religion. Among the chapters are: "Humanist Ethics: Eating the Forbidden Fruit"; "Relevance of Science to Ethics"; "Democracy without Theology"; "Misuses of Civil Disobedience"; "The Limits of Tolerance"; "Skepticism about the Paranormal: Legitimate and Illegitimate"; "Militant Atheism vs. Freedom of Conscience"; "Promethean Love: Unbound"; "The Case for Euthanasia"; and "The New Inquisition in the Schools."

The Enlightenment

Anthony Pagden
The Enlightenment Book PDF

Author : Anthony Pagden
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 456 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2013-05-23
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780191636714

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The Enlightenment by Anthony Pagden Pdf

The Enlightenment and Why It Still Matters tells nothing less than the story of how the modern, Western view of the world was born. Cultural and intellectual historian Anthony Pagden explains how, and why, the ideal of a universal, global, and cosmopolitan society became such a central part of the Western imagination in the ferment of the Enlightenment - and how these ideas have done battle with an inward-looking, tradition-oriented view of the world ever since. Cosmopolitanism is an ancient creed; but in its modern form it was a creature of the Enlightenment attempt to create a new 'science of man', based upon a vision of humanity made up of autonomous individuals, free from all the constraints imposed by custom, prejudice, and religion. As Pagden shows, this 'new science' was based not simply on 'cold, calculating reason', as its critics claimed, but on the argument that all humans are linked by what in the Enlightenment were called 'sympathetic' attachments. The conclusion was that despite the many tribes and nations into which humanity was divided there was only one 'human nature', and that the final destiny of the species could only be the creation of one universal, cosmopolitan society. This new 'human science' provided the philosophical grounding of the modern world. It has been the inspiration behind the League of Nations, the United Nations and the European Union. Without it, international law, global justice, and human rights legislation would be unthinkable. As Anthony Pagden argues passionately and persuasively in this book, it is a legacy well worth preserving - and one that might yet come to inherit the earth.

From Enlightenment to Receptivity

Michael Slote
From Enlightenment to Receptivity Book PDF

Author : Michael Slote
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2016-11
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780190649647

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From Enlightenment to Receptivity by Michael Slote Pdf

This new book by Michael Slote argues that Western philosophy on the whole has overemphasized rational control and autonomy at the expense of the important countervailing value and virtue of receptivity. Recently the ideas of caring and empathy have received a great deal of philosophical and public attention, but both these notions rest on the deeper and broader value of receptivity, and in From Enlightenment to Receptivity, Slote seeks to show that we need to focus more on receptivity if we are to attain a more balanced sense and understanding of what is important to us. Beginning with a critique of Enlightenment thinking that calls into question its denial of any central role to considerations of emotion and empathy, he goes on to show how a greater emphasis on these factors and on the receptivity that underlies them can give us a more realistic, balanced, and sensitive understanding of our core ethical and epistemological values. This means rejecting post-modernism's blanket rejection of reason and of compelling real values and recognizing, rather, that receptivity should play a major role in how we lead our lives as individuals, in how we relate to nature, in how we acquire knowledge about the world, and in how we relate morally and politically with others.