Intellectual History of Enlightenment

Las misiones y los colegios fueron las instituciones centrales de la Compañía en el Antiguo Régimen. Si bien a las primeras la acomodatio les dio cierto carácter particular, los segundos fueron la piedra angular de la construcción de la identidad jesuita, como puede constatarse en la primera parte del libro, en la que se abordan distintos aspectos de la conformación de este complejo educativo. En la segunda parte se da cuenta de cómo los colegios se convirtieron en los enclaves para el retorno de la Compañía durante el siglo XIX, pero cómo también fueron el punto de fricción más claro entre las fuerzas Estado- Iglesia, ya que la educación se tornó en uno de los espacios de discusión más severos en el mundo laico que se instauraba en Occidente. Por otra parte, a esta pugna entre lo laico y lo religioso habría que sumar una nueva dificultad que hizo de los colegios decimonónicos una institución casi inconmensurable con respecto a los de la Antigua Compañía, pues si algo distinguía a estos últimos era el funcionamiento bajo la norma única de la Ratio Studiorum: tal como el profesor Gómez Diez señala en uno de los capítulos, "[... ] El modelo educativo tradicional no es viable. La diversidad entre los países dificulta establecer el mismo tipo de colegio en todas partes".

Josiah Tucker, who was the Anglican dean of Gloucester from 1758 until his death in 1799, is best known today as a controversialist, a political economist and a lesser contemporary of Adam Smith. Little attention has been paid, however, to the important relationship between his religious writings and his wider economic thought. This article addresses this lack of attention in two ways: first by demonstrating the link between Tucker's conception of civil and religious liberty and his "science" of political economy, and second by drawing sustained attention to his economic adaptation and reformulation of the moral philosophy of Bishop Joseph Butler, Tucker's ecclesiastical mentor from 1739 to 1752. Emphasizing Butler and Tucker's views on the traditional Christian virtue of charity, and the moral duty of the rich towards the poor, the article suggests that both clergymen were proponents of a sociability-based, neo-Stoic conception of human nature, which was not only compatible with, but also dependent upon, the established Anglican Church and state and the predominantly Whig commercial order. In consequence, Tucker's political economy was premised on the unavoidability of social subordination and economic inequality as necessary hallmarks of modern commercial society. Accordingly, the article closes with a brief discussion of Tucker's "Butlerian" assessment and rejection of the "anti-social" doctrine of individual natural rights, associated with the popular radicalism of the American and French Revolutions in the latter half of the eighteenth century.

This is the first book on the genesis, impact and reception of the most-widely read History of England of the early 18th century: Paul Rapin Thoyras' Histoire d'Angleterre (1724-27). The Histoire and complementary works (Extraits des Actes de Rymer, 1710-1724; Dissertation sur les Whigs et les Torys, 1717) gave practical expression to theorizations of history against Pyrrhonian postulations by foregrounding an empirical form of history-writing.

Rapin's unprecedented standards of historiographical accuracy triggered both politically-informed reinterpretations of the Histoire in partisan newspapers and a multitude of adaptations that catered to an ever-growing number of readers. Despite a long-standing assessment as a "standard Whig historian", Rapin fashioned the impartial persona of a judge-historian, in compliance with the expectations of the Republic of Letters. His personal trajectory illuminates how scholars pursued trustworthy knowledge and how they reconsidered the boundaries of their community in the face of the booming printing industry and the interconnected growth of general readership. Rapin's oeuvre provided significant raw material for Voltaire's and Hume's Enlightenment historiographical narratives. A comparative foray into their respective different approaches to history and authorship cautions us against assuming a direct transition from the Republic of Letters into an Enlightenment Republic of Letters. To study the diffusion and the impact of Rapin's works is to understand that empirical history-writing, defined by its commitment to erudition in the service of impartiality, coexisted with the histoire philosophique.

Esta publicación, a cargo de Alberto Hernández Mateos, presenta por primera vez la edición completa del tratado musical de Antonio Eximeno, incluyendo las partes suprimidas o alteradas en la edición española de la obra. El "Estudio preliminar" aborda el perfil biográfico de Eximeno, analiza el sentido innovador del tratado (tanto en su forma como en su contenido), los aspectos no textuales que forman parte esencial del mismo y los cambios introducidos en la traducción.

This paper aims to account for what I describe as the gentrification of the humanist tradition by strengthening the bond between the epistemic merger of virtue theory and the still emergent category of political economy in eighteenth-century discourses. I use Jane Austen's Mansfield Park (1814) to trace the shifting relation between character and currency to historical transformations in transatlantic slavery and the development of an innovative line of rhetoric capable of registering the historical novelty of ‘creditable’ yet ‘unreal’ value. I argue that the text articulates contemporary fears that the growth and diversification of character through the process of commodity production and exchange rendered virtue in a politically paradigmatic form archaic and remote. In other words, Austen's narrativized account of the advent of paper money and public credit dramatizes how these linguistic transformations resulted in a wider cultural unease about the socially determined indicators of value, character, and race, and meant that not merely the functioning, but the intelligibility of society depended upon the success of a program of reification. Yet I caution that the novel's conclusion signals that the success of this program remained anxiously unsettled at the close of the eighteenth century and that it instead acknowledges how the modern dialects of credit precariously subsumed grammars which had traditionally given shape to the material or otherwise ‘real’ foundations of civic personality and virtue.

Nel secolo dei Lumi il nome di Maria Gaetana Agnesi affiora largamente nelle discussioni in atto sulla validità delle teorie newtoniane, sul calcolo infinitesimale di Leibniz e Newton, sull’istruzione femminile e il ruolo della donna nell’indagine scientifica. Nel confronto a distanza con Algarotti, la scienziata milanese promuove un newtonianesimo, delle donne e non  “per le donne”, dai tratti marcatamente neostoici. La pubblicazione delle Instituzioni analitiche, che le procurò fama e prestigio in Europa, segnò poi una svolta. Ammirata da Goldoni e detta immortale da Pietro Verri, Agnesi volle costruire una propria identità di scienziata e di donna autonoma nella dimensione etica dell’impegno sociale e dell’esperienza di fede, influenzata dalla spiritualità teatina e dalla religiosità di Muratori.

Nel secolo dei Lumi spicca il nome di Maria Gaetana Agnesi nelle discussioni sulla validità delle teorie newtoniane, sul calcolo infinitesimale di Leibniz e Newton, sull'istruzione femminile e sul ruolo della donna nell'indagine scientifica. Nel confronto a distanza con Algarotti, la scienziata milanese promuove un newtonianesimo, delle donne e non "per le donne", dai tratti marcatamente neostoici. La pubblicazione delle Instituzioni analitiche, che le procurò fama e prestigio in Europa, segnò poi una svolta. Ammirata da Goldoni e definita immortale da Pietro Verri, Agnesi volle costruire una propria identità di scienziata e di donna autonoma nella dimensione etica dell'impegno sociale e dell'esperienza di fede, influenzata dalla spiritualità teatina e dalla religiosità di Muratori.

In copertina: Filippo Morghen (1730-1807), Ritratto di Maria Gaetana Agnesi, incisione [realizzata da Francesco Pisante (1804-1889)], in «L'Omnibus pittoresco», Napoli 30 giugno 1842, anno quinto, n. 11 (collezione privata).
Aracne CADST 39 - 18,00 euro. Il "cannocchIale" dello storIco: mItI e IdeologIe / 39 Collana fondata da Achille Olivieri e diretta da Daniele Santarelli.

Настоящата статия прави опит да потърси различни от досегаш-
ните тълкувания на ролята на личността и творчеството на печално известния маркиз Дьо Сад. Темата е актуална, защото творчеството на Дьо Сад е важно
и за съвремието ни. Неговото влияние се отпечатва върху идеите на редица
известни философи, писатели и обществени дейци. Тук се обсъжда въпросът
доколко това влияние се базира върху правилното тълкуване на скандалното
творчество на либертинския писател.
This article is an attempt to explore and offer new interpretations of
the personality and works of the notorious Marquis de Sade. A topical matter, de
Sade’s literature is important today, as it was back in the past. His impact has shaped
the ideas of several famous philosophers, writers, and public figures. The question
on debate here is to what extent this impact has been analyzed correctly from the
historical perspective.

Au chapitre XXI du 2e Livre de son Essai concernant l’entendement humain, intitulé « Du Pouvoir », Locke propose une critique radicale du libre arbitre (« free will ») dans son acception traditionnelle. Il s’agit du chapitre le plus long de l’Essai, et de l’un des plus difficiles, car Locke l’a retravaillé lors des quatre éditions successives, sans tout à fait se soucier de la cohérence entre les éléments présents dans la 1ère édition et ses ajouts conceptuels ultérieurs. Mon but est de montrer qu’il existe bel et bien une cohérence dans l’approche lockienne de la liberté, en tant qu’elle articule une forme de « compatibilisme » – c’est-à-dire la position selon laquelle le libre-arbitre et le déterminisme sont compatibles. Mais la position de Locke vacille entre une reconnaissance du déterminisme (selon la dimension hédoniste de son argument) et un retrait face à ce constat (selon ce qu’il appelle la « suspension du désir »). Cette indécision, ou en tout cas cette coexistence précaire de deux visions de l’action et de la motivation, sera critiquée par le disciple préféré de Locke, le déiste Anthony Collins, dans son Enquête philosophique sur la liberté humaine (1717). Je suggèrerai en conclusion que Locke a défini un espace conceptuel dans lequel le déterminisme et la reconnaissance de la spécificité de l’univers mental peuvent coexister, mais que Collins en a tiré un système plus conséquent, fondé en grande partie sur l’idée de « clôture causale ».

Opisując początki filozofii oświeceniowej, wywodzi jej genezę z gnostycyzmu i wymienia jej kluczowe cechy na to wskazujące. W niniejszym artykule stawiam tezę, iż jednym z kluczowych elementów spajających główny nurt filozofii politycznej Oświecenia jest jej odwołanie do "apolityczności", rozumianej jako dążenie do ustanowienia esencji wszelkiej polityki poprzez dogmatyczne przyjęcie pewnych założeń, które ustanawiają absolutne ramy dla racjonalnej, progresywnej polityki. W drugiej części artykułu wskazuję na rolę, jaką ten trend odgrywa we współczesnych koncepcjach i praktykach demokracji liberalnej, a także wskazuję jego konkretne konsekwencje dla współczesnej nauki o polityce, które do dziś determinują badania na temat polityczności dyskursu o demokracji.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X20000473

Frederick II's writings have conventionally been viewed either as political tools or as means of public self-fashioning – part of his campaign to raise the status of Prussia from middling principality to great power. This article, by contrast, argues that Frederick's works must also be taken seriously on their own terms, and interpreted against the background of Enlightenment philosophy. Frederick's notions of kingship and state service were not governed mostly by a principle of pure morality or ‘humanitarianism’, as argued influentially by Friedrich Meinecke. On the contrary, the king's views were part and parcel of an eighteenth-century vision of modern kingship in commercial society, based on the benign pursuit of self-love and luxury. A close analysis of Frederick's writings demonstrates that authorial labour was integral to his political agency, publicly placing constraints on what could be perceived as legitimate conduct, rather than mere intellectual window-dressing or an Enlightened pastime in irresolvable tension with his politics.

This is the first of several discourses for all intellectuals about dogma, mental expansion and the liberation of intellect.  “For intellectuals, spiritual progress is always delayed, and the reason is this – that their intellectual body goes on increasing,” according to P. R. Sarkar, “but for want of the apexed mentality, the goal remains far away. But when the intellectual body is highly enlarged, it is sure to become one with the Macrocosm. And when this enlarged ectoplasmic structure becomes one with the Cosmic ectoplasmic structure, certainly a person will feel his oneness with the Supreme.” P. R. Sarkar, (1921-1990), was a spiritual teacher (also known as Shrii Shrii Anandamurti) in the tradition of Shiva and Krishna, who founded Renaissance Universal to promote a new global renaissance, and who founded the socio-spiritual movement Ananda Marga (“the Path of Bliss”).  –  Richard Gauthier, Department of Chemistry and Physics, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, California, USA, May 6, 2021.

How did the concept of the secular state emerge and evolve in Australia and how has it impacted on its institutions? This is the most comprehensive study to date on the relationship between religion and the state in Australian history, focusing on the meaning of political secularity in a society that was from the beginning marked by a high degree of religious plurality.

This book tracks the rise and fall of the established Church of England, the transition to plural establishments, the struggle for a public Christian secular education system, and the eventual separation of church and state throughout the colonies. The study is unique in that it does not restrict its concern with religion to the churches but also examines how religious concepts and ideals infused apparently secular political and social thought and movements making the case that much Australian thought and institution building has had a sacral–secular quality. Social welfare reform, nationalism, and emerging conceptions of citizenship and civilisation were heavily influenced by religious ideals, rendering problematic traditional linear
narratives of secularisation.

Finally, the book considers present day pluralist Australia and new understandings of state secularity in light of massive social changes over recent generations.

Co-edited and translated with Jacob van Sluis.

Vol 1 of the Edinburgh Edition of the Philosophical Works of François Hemsterhuis

The first ever English translation of François Hemsterhuis’ early series of philosophical letters published during the 1760s and 1770s

This complete edition publishes Hemsterhuis’ 'Letter on an Antique Gemstone', 'Letter on Sculpture', 'Letter on Desires', 'Letter on Man and his Relations' and 'Philosophical Description of the Character of the Late Mr. F. Fagel' chronologically to gradually reveal Hemsterhuis’ complete systematic vision.

These letters are supplemented by three introductions. The first by Peter Sonderen pinpoints the significance of Hemsterhuis’ remarkably influential aesthetics. The second by Jacob van Sluis provides the context to 'Letter on Man and his Relations'. And the third by Gabriel Trop focuses on the importance of these writings in the history of ideas, especially Herder’s translation and ‘Postscript’ to the 'Letter on Desires', Diderot’s commentary on the 'Letter on Man and his Relations' and Goethe’s incorporation of Hemsterhuis’ definition of beauty into his aesthetic reflections.

The book is available here for purchase: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-early-writings-of-francois-hemsterhuis-1762-1773.html

The radical ideas of the French Revolution are generally regarded as the offspring of the theory of social contract. However, even though the Revolutionaries cherished Rousseau’s legacy, the period was not without instances in which this legacy could be subject to variation and the notion of social contract could be attributed, in a decidedly negative tone, less to Rousseau than to Hobbes. In this context, the present study of Jean-Baptiste Salaville’s L’Homme et la société, ou nouvelle théorie de la nature humaine et de l’état social (1799) demonstrates that the idea of natural sociability could provide an opportunity to elaborate a radical republican future without the notion of social contract. Salaville’s political vision, built on the tradition of natural jurisprudence, posited a new idea of the general will and empiricist legislation in the last days of the French Revolution.

Voltaire (1694-1778) me trotte, avec ou sans béquilles, dans la tête depuis très longtemps, depuis qu’en quatrième ou troisième nous nous passions dans le lycée municipal de Bordeaux, dit Collège Moderne, les passages expurgés de Candide fait prisonnier par des pirates qui fouillent de fond en comble le bateau et ses passagers et passagères. C’était peu de temps avant que l’on interdise « La Religieuse » (1966-67) de Jacques Calmette, ce film adapté de Denis Diderot.

Mais une citation de ce Voltaire grand amateur de citations s’impose aujourd’hui comme une vérité éternelle et pourtant tellement mise en doute.

« La philosophie, la seule philosophie, cette sœur de la religion, a désarmé des mains que la superstition avait si longtemps ensanglantées; et l’esprit humain, au réveil de son ivresse, s’est étonné des excès où l’avait emporté le fanatisme. » (Voltaire, Traité sur la tolérance, 1763, chapitre IV, «Si la tolérance est dangereuse, et chez quels peuples elle est permise»)

C’est en notre période cruelle beaucoup plus qu’une simple citation. Et c’est pour moi maintenant devenu un pèlerinage. Depuis plus de dix ans je remonte dans un sens et dans l’autre le Boulevard Voltaire de Paris de la Place de la Nation à la Place de la République de mon hôtel au Syndicat National des Auteurs et des Compositeurs, bien plus loi il est vrai, rue Taitbout que j’atteins tout le temps en passant devant la Synagogue de la rue de la Victoire, ses grilles municipales au garde-à-vous et son CRS dans sa guérite vitrée de garde 24 heures sur 24 et 7 jours sur 7. J’ai parcouru ainsi ce boulevard plusieurs centaines de fois et j’ai chaque fois regardé le Bataclan au point de ne même plus le voir.

Mais l’actualité m’a tout à coup rappelé à la réalité et m’a ré-ouvert les yeux de la mémoire et j’ai revu ce bâtiment que je ne remarquais plus depuis longtemps. Et ce Boulevard Voltaire m’est alors apparu comme l’axe suivi le soir du 13 Novembre 2015 par des commandos en formation de combat armé de bombes et de religion. Et je suis passé devant le Bataclan et traversé la Place de la République bien des fois depuis particulièrement dans les mois qui ont suivi quand de véritables parterres de cierges, bougies, fleurs, messages chantaient la tolérance et mon projet de traiter du théâtre de Voltaire et de la philosophie dans ce théâtre se trouva un peu cerné et recentré sur une pièce devenue au cours des siècles plutôt confidentielle, même si le metteur en scène et auteur José Valverde la connaît, car il faut bien le dire le théâtre de Voltaire était un théâtre d’agitprop philosophique en son temps, et parfois même un peu sentimentalement mélodramatique à la Greuze. Jean Jacques Rousseau n’était pas beaucoup mieux. On est chez ces auteurs bien loin de Pierre de Marivaux (1688-1763) ou de Pierre de Beaumarchais (1732-1799). Denis Diderot (1713-1784) est presque un prodige dans cet ensemble philosophique plus que dramaturgique.

Mais voilà ici le premier travail sur un certain nombre de comédies qui ne sont pas parmi l  smeilleures pièces de Voltaire et qui ne laisseront pas beaucoup de gens rêver car ces comédies sont larmoyantes et pathétiques pour ne pas dire mélodramatiques. Je réserve Mahomet et Les Guèbres pour Avignon.

The origins and the development of the Neapolitan school of philosophical and political thought of the 18th century; the life and works of Francesco Longano, Francesco Antonio Grimaldi, Francesco Mario Pagano and the reception of this works in the European culture, including translations and books reviews.

My subject is Joseph Priestley in the 1770s, and his place in the later Enlightenment.  If any one figure stands for the Enlightenment in England it is Priestley, ‘the Voltaire of Unitarianism’, as Hazlitt styled him.  There are many aspects to this decade of intellectual adventurousness.  Philosophically, he takes up the case for materialism and attacks what he calls ‘the hypothesis of the soul’.  He defends the determinism to which he has always subscribed.  And he meets both Humean scepticism and Reid’s Common Sense position with a version of scientific realism fashioned after Locke.  Politically, he began to attack the English aristocracy and clerical establishment, which he sees as hostile to liberty and toleration.  Theologically, he completes the transition from Calvinism to Unitarianism that began in his youth. Viewing Priestley as a son of the Enlightenment, none of these activities is surprising.  What is surprising from that viewpoint is that he led the defence of theism against the criticisms of Hume, d’Holbach, Gibbon, and later Erasmus Darwin.  Is he or is he not an Enlightenment intellectual?  If he is then what sense does it make to talk of an Enlightenment project, one which will have to accommodate Hume, d’Holbach, and Priestley?

Il était un peuple du bout du monde, qui d’un coup vit arriver des voiles. Bientôt des marins avides accaparèrent ses vaches, des colons prirent ses terres. Les maladies et la violence firent le reste. Dans ce laps de temps que dure ce qu’on appelle pudiquement une « rencontre », ce peuple s’est trouvé abondamment vu, observé, ausculté. Vivant à l’extrémité australe de l’Afrique, en somme à mi-chemin des fatigues de l’Europe et des fantasmes de l’Inde, il s’est mué en une curiosité exotique, une variété humaine extravagante, une preuve vivante ou d’ailleurs morte, un monstre de scène ou de foire, un spécimen de musée. Parle-t-il, au moins, pour nous dire ce qu’il est ? Non. Ceux qui parlent sont les autres, marins de passage au Cap de Bonne-Espérance, gens de voyage, collectionneurs ou philosophes de l’Europe expansionniste et curieuse, gens de spectacle et naturalistes. Ils ne nous disent pas ce que sont les Khoisan authentiques, de chair et d’os, ces sociétés singulières du bout de l’Afrique, bien vite détruites ou éparpillées, soumises et exploitées, mais ce qu’ils ne sont pas assez ou ne sont plus, ce qu’ils devraient être ou auraient dû. Les Hottentots, puisque tel est le nom de ces sauvages de papier, ne nous parlent décidément pas d’eux mais de nous. Ce livre est leur histoire.

Chapter 6 in Voltaire's science fiction satire, Micromegas, is an illustration of the French Enlightenment's movement toward empirical scientific methods and intellectual skepticism, away from speculative metaphysics, organic systems known as the Summae, and recognition of the absolute.

Gegen ein immer noch wirkmächtiges Bild der Aufklärung als einer Form des Rationalismus will dieser Sammelband " die ästhetische Welterschlie-ßung und Selbstreflexion in den Mittelpunkt stellen " , weil, so die etwas über-raschende Behauptung der Herausgeber, " das Denken der Aufklärung erst auf einer solchen Basis ihre politischen Forderungen richtig stellen " könne (S. 9). Nun könnte man natürlich sofort einigermaßen gespannt sein, wie diese richtig gestellten politischen Forderungen aussehen, aber zunächst ist man doch skeptisch, wenn " das " Denken " der " Aufklärung irgendwelche po-litischen Forderungen stellen soll, denn wie sich schon zwanglos aus Jo-nathan Israels Forschungen ergibt, existiert ein solches Denken nicht als Einheit, so daß es auch nicht " ihre " politischen Forderungen an sich geben kann. Es geht aber in dem Band 1 auch nicht vorrangig um sozialpolitische Fragen, sondern zentral um Musikgeschichte und Musikwissenschaft. Den-noch soll der ganze Band auf eine " Aktualisierung der musikalischen Para-digmen und auf deren sozialpolitische Dimension selbst " orientieren (siehe dazu auch den letzten Beitrag des Bandes aus der Feder von Boris Pre-višić). Was dann dazu gesagt wird, wirkt eher unbestimmt und vage, ohne daß recht greifbar wäre, worauf das nun konkret hinauslaufen soll: so seien " Stimmung und Vielstimmigkeit als Paradigmen der heutigen Kultur " in ih-rem Profil aus der Sicht der Aufklärung zu schärfen " , und zwar auf der Grundlage von ästhetischen Modellen und Kunstwerken. Weiter heißt es: " Der Zusammenhang zwischen Stimmungen und Vielstimmigkeit ist leider noch viel weniger als gesellschaftspolitisches Desiderat in der Gegenwart angekommen. Ein verbindlicher Pluralismus tut not, der in der Aufklärung angedacht worden war, bevor er dann im Getöse des 19. und 20. Jahrhun-derts wieder verschüttet wurde " (S. 16). Offenbar soll die in der Musik wal-tende Vielstimmigkeit auf andere Bereiche bezogen werden, politisch also 1 Inhaltsverzeichnis: https://d-nb.info/1131375556/04

Examining the educational writings of three of the eighteenth‐century’s most innovative thinkers, the Abbé de Saint‐Pierre, Morelly and Helvétius, this article challenges the currently accepted view that it was a belief in human pliability which gave rise to the contemporary groundbreaking faith in the power of education to improve society. The article delineates an intellectual process that culminated in the stance that man’s innate behavioural tendencies are unalterable. It argues that, at least prior to Rousseau, the eighteenth‐century faith in the power of education to improve society rested on a conviction that it is possible to beneficially direct man’s fixed behavioural tendencies.

A central theme in the scholarly literature on Enlightenment Europe concerns the increased focus on the role of reason in the development of European thought, especially in the context of the new science and natural philosophers’ radical successes in this burgeoning field. As a consequence, there is a tendency in both philosophical scholarship and teaching to bind philosophy and science tightly together and emphasize the way in which one aspect of rationality in early modern philosophy led to the development of modern science. While there is certainly much that is correct in this approach, one motivation for pluralizing philosophy’s past is that this story leaves out a great deal that is important in Enlightenment views of reason. Margaret Cavendish provides a compelling example of a thinker from this period who was not only engaged in the scientific enterprises of her day, but included within her purview disciplines we typically categorize today as belonging squarely to the humanities. Her philosophical work opens a window into how enlightenment thinkers conceived of the role, and arguably more importantly, the limits of reason and the sciences. In contrast with the traditional interpretation of the modern period, I argue that reason was significantly broader in scope — its developments in science were paralleled by equally important advances in the music, art, literature, medicine, philosophy, etc. Cavendish’s work forces us to recognize the lack of a sharp boundary between these areas; philosophy was able to act as a bridge between the sciences and humanistic disciplines. Integrating Cavendish into the canon helps us to see that the narrow focus on the scientific version of reason within Enlightenment philosophy creates a false distinction between science and the humanities and misses out on central, humanistic features of philosophy that make its practice fruitful. I use the example of Cavendish to make a broader point about the nature of higher education today. With the increased focus on so-called “practical” skills, vocational, and STEM focused education, I argue that we have lost focus on the end for the sake of which we pursue education: to live well. Cavendish provides us an opportunity to re-evaluate the narrowly scientific conception of reason during the 17th and 18th centuries as well as our current outlook on why we pursue education. In doing so, I make a case for a well-rounded liberal arts education.

Dinin otoritesine başkaldırı, Aydınlanmayı tanımlayan bir ilkedir. Bu çalışma, akıl-inanç karşıtlığına bağlanan bu kabulün, Aydınlanmayı ne ölçüde tanımladığını incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu bakımdan, Aquinas'tan Spinoza'ya, Hobbes'tan Thomasius'a, Kant'tan Schleiermacher'e kadar çeşitli düşünürlerin görüşlerini yalnızca, akıl-inanç-yorum bağlamında ele alan inceleme, bu düşünürlerin diğer görüşlerini bilinçli olarak dışarıda bırakmaktadır. Aydınlanma döneminde yaşamamış bazı düşünürler, çalışmanın bağlamı içerisinde, Aydınlanmanın ufkunu belirlemiş olmaları bakımından ele alınmaktadırlar. İlk olarak, aklı inancın otoritesine bağlayan anlayış ele alınmakta olup, akıl ile inanç karşıtlığının, kutsal metinlerin yorumuna bağlı olduğu gösterilmeye çalışmaktadır. İnancın otoritesinin, yorum sorunuyla ilgisi, inancı aklın otoritesine bağlamıştır. İkinci olarak da modern Aydınlanma düşüncesinin, akıl-inanç ilişkisi sorununu, inancın akla dayalı yorumuyla yanıtladığı gösterilmektedir. Aydınlanma düşüncesinde, akıl-inanç ilişkisi, yorum sorunu dolayımında, etik ve politik bir bağlamda tartışılır. Bu çalışma, akıl-inanç ilişkisinin, sadece bir başkaldırı ya da reddetme değil aynı zamanda muhafaza etme ya da benimseme biçiminde olduğu iddiasındadır. Bu iddia, aklın inançtan bağımsızlaşmasının yorumla olan ilgisine göre, temellendirilmek istenmektedir. Aydınlanmanın eleştiri fikrinin yorumla ilgisi, " inanç mı yorumu; yorum mu inancı belirler? " sorusunun kaynağıdır. Aydınlanmanın, yorumu akla dayalı bir eleştiri olarak kavramasıyla, bu soruya verilen yanıt da değişir. Ancak bu değişim, inancın inanılan şeyden, düşüncenin düşünülen şeyden, yorumun yorumlanan şeyden farklılaşmasıyla gerçekleşir. Başka bir deyişle, inanç ile yorum arasındaki ilişki, aklın inancı, bir dini hakikatler bütünlüğü ya da ruhun saf bir etkinliği olarak kabul etmesine göre belirlenir. Bu açıdan bakıldığında, çalışmanın temel iddiası şöyle dile getirilebilir: Aydınlanma, belli bir inancın, yorumu önceden belirlemesine karşı çıkarken, akla dayalı yorumu, inancın içeriğini belirleyen bir durum olarak öne çıkarır. Abstract The rebellion against religious authority is a principle that defines the Enlightenment. This study aims investigating to what extent this acceptance is based on reason-faith opposition that defines the Enlightenment. Therefore, it is a study that only focuses on the ideas of the philosophers from Aquinas to Spinoza, from Hobbes to Thomasius, from Kant to Schleiermacher only within the context of reason, faith and interpretation, intentionally leaving out their other ideas. Some thinkers who did not live during the Enlightenment era are discussed as their ideas formed the basis of the Enlightenment. Firstly, the idea that relates reason to the authority of faith is studied to show that the opposition between reason and faith lies in the interpretation of the scriptures. The relationship of the authority of faith with the problem of interpretation connects faith to the authority of reason. Secondly, it illustrates that modern Enlightenment thinking responds to the problem of the reason-faith relationship with the interpretation of faith that is based on reason. Reason-faith relationship in the Enlightenment thinking is discussed within the context of ethics and politics with reference to the problem of interpretation. This study claims that the reason