DOCSLIB.ORG

The Role of Imagination in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’S Emile: Or on Education and Christoph Martin Wieland’S Geschichte Des Agathon

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Role of Imagination in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’S Emile: Or on Education and Christoph Martin Wieland’S Geschichte Des Agathon Where the Body touches the Spirit: the Role of Imagination in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Emile: or On Education and Christoph Martin Wieland’s Geschichte des Agathon by Andrea Marie Speltz Athesissubmittedtothe Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada October 2012 Copyright c Andrea Marie Speltz, 2012 Abstract This dissertation o↵ers a re-evaluation of the role of the imagination in Jean- Jacques Rousseau’s Emile: or On Education (1762) and Christoph Martin Wieland’s Geschichte des Agathon (1794). My central claim is that both novels develop a pedagogy of the imagination in order to overcome the dilemmas of Cartesian dualism, that is, to form a beautiful soul in whom sensuality and reason, the body and the spirit, coexist in harmony. I demonstrate that both texts highlight the important but potentially damaging role played by the imagination in the development of religious thought, moral sentiments, and sexuality. The texts suggest that while a malformed imagination results in materialism, egotism, libertinism, and despotism, a well-formed imagination provides the foundation for natural religion, cosmopolitan enthusiasm, sentimental love, and a just political constitution. Consequently, I argue that for Rousseau and Wieland, harnessing the power of the imagination becomes the key to reconciling human nature and civil society. In addition to elucidating the role of the imagination in Emile and Agathon, this dissertation also contributes to an understanding of the intellectual affinities between Rousseau and Wieland more generally. In preparation for the comparative reading of Emile and Agathon, I survey Wieland’s private and public responses to Rousseau and contend that although the two authors di↵er significantly in their narrative and i philosophical approach, they nevertheless share similar moral and political ideals. Both authors acknowledge the ability of the imagination to drive a wedge between the individual’s natural inclinations and moral duties, causing fragmentation of the self and society in turn. Yet the imagination, the motor of cultural progress, is not only the source of man’s alienation, it is also the remedy for his dividedness. If properly harnessed, the imagination can cease to be the cause of human depravity and become the basis of peaceful human relations, both at the level of the individual and that of society as a whole. In conclusion, I propose that the role of the imagination in forming the beautiful soul has consequences for the collective, and that we can read the moral constitutions of Emile and Agathon as negotiating the possibilities of various political constitutions, including that of a democratic state. ii Acknowledgments This is thesis about the formation of character. Consequently, I would like to acknowledge all of the individuals who have made significant contributions to the formation of mine. I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr. David Pugh and Dr. Jill Scott, for making me into a scholar who both respects and enjoys intellectual exchange. I would also like to thank my fellow graduate students, Marie-Therese Ferguson, Joan Gladwell, Rebecca H¨ugler, Sarah Jacoba, Laura Kinderman, Stefanie Kullick, Margaret Maliszewska, and Eva Sattelmayer, for creating a rich, challenging, and supportive academic environment, in which I was able to develop and share my ideas. On a more personal note, I would like to thank the members of my family: my mother for teaching me kindness, my father for teaching me humility (tinged with a biting sense of self-irony), and my siblings for providing me with kindred spirits or, as Wieland would say, “sympathische Seelen.” Last but not least, I want to express my profound gratitude to my life partner, Jean-Pierre Hickey, for accompanying me on this adventure. He and the other Jean in my life, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, have helped me to understand what it truly means to be good. iii Contents Abstract i Acknowledgments iii Contents iv Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 PedagogiesoftheImagination . 1 1.2 NatureandEducation .......................... 4 1.3 AligningReasonandImagination . 23 1.4 Overview of Chapters . 34 Chapter 2: Rousseau and Wieland: Critical and Historical Per- spectives 38 2.1 Multiple Rousseaus . 38 2.2 The Critical Reception of Wieland’s Relationship to Rousseau . 40 2.3 The Rousseau of Wieland’s Personal Correspondence . 51 2.4 Wieland’sPublicResponsestoRousseau . 58 2.4.1 Wieland’s Beytr¨age:SuperficialPolemicsorInsightfulRefuta- tion? . 58 2.4.2 AddressingtheHypothesisonNaturalMan . 62 2.4.3 The Interconnectedness of Human Vice and Virtue: Wieland’s “Koxkox und Kikequetzal” . 65 2.4.4 From Natural to Civilized Man: the Role of Imagination in the Fictional Beytr¨age ........................ 70 2.4.5 The Nature/Culture Dichotomy in Wieland’s Beytr¨age .... 77 2.4.6 Tlantlaquacapatli’s Excursus on Moral Beauty . 80 2.4.7 Moral Pessimism versus Political Optimism . 84 2.5 Fellow Perspectivists and Moralists . 85 Chapter 3: The Pedagogy of Emile’s Imagination: From Nature to Natural Religion, Compassion, and Love 91 iv 3.1 Emile through the Lens of Agathon ................... 91 3.2 TheFoundationofEmile’sEducation . 92 3.3 The Trajectory of Emile’s Education . 98 3.4 “Such is the Empire and Influence of the Imagination” . 102 3.4.1 Rousseau’s Ambivalence toward the Imagination . 102 3.4.2 The Imagination: Gateway to the Divine or Cause of Religious Deformities? . 108 3.4.3 “Pity is sweet [. ] Envy is bitter”: Compassion, Amour- propre andtheFoundationofSocialJustice . 118 3.4.4 “There is nothing beautiful except that which is not”: or, of Love and Sublimation . 144 3.5 “Everything is rooted in politics” . 162 Chapter 4: The Pedagogy of Agathon’s Imagination: From Pla- tonic Schw¨armerei to Natural Religion, Cosmopolitan Enthusiasm, and Love 167 4.1 Agathon through the Lens of Emile ................... 167 4.2 DistrustofImaginationinImaginativeFiction . 178 4.3 TheFoundationofAgathon’sEducation . 190 4.4 The Trajectory of Agathon’s Development . 199 4.5 Imagination . 203 4.5.1 Wieland’s Ambivalence toward the Role of the Imagination in Moral Development . 203 4.5.2 NaturalImagination=NaturalReligion . 204 4.5.3 “Was ist das Mitleiden, welches uns zur Gutth¨atigkeit treibt?”: From Compassion to Cosmopolitan Enthusiasm . 217 4.5.4 Seducing a Schw¨armer ...................... 239 4.6 Excursus: The Wisdom of Mentors and the Ideals of their Pupils . 261 4.7 Morality and Politics . 273 Chapter 5: Conclusion 287 Work Cited 291 v 1 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Pedagogies of the Imagination Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Emile: or On Education (1762) and Christoph Martin Wieland’s Geschichte des Agathon (1794) both explore the conflict between human nature and social existence, between natural inclinations and moral duties.1 Further- more, both texts promote narratives of education as a means of overcoming man’s dualistic nature, of creating a beautiful soul in whom nature and culture, sensuality 1The first version of Agathon was published in 1766/67, followed by a second in 1773, and a third in 1794. I focus on the third and final version from 1794, the so-called “Ausgabe letzter Hand.” Although many scholars agree with Friedrich Sengle in assigning superior aesthetic value to the novel’s first version (Wieland 196), I follow Klaus Schaefer’s and Walter Erhart’s proposal to assess the aesthetic qualities of each version in its own right (Wieland 44 and Entzweiung 19, respectively). The main thesis of Erhart’s Entzweiung und Selbstaufkl¨arung: Christoph Martin Wielands ‘Agathon- Projekt’ is that each version should be viewed as a di↵erent answer to the same question: “Die formal-¨asthetischen Abweichungen der einzelnen Fassungen gewinnen ihre Bedeutung [. ] zur¨uck, wenn man sie nicht als Ausdruck wachsender Skepsis oder einer gewandelten Philosophie, sondern als unterschiedliche literarische Antworten auf eine mit der ersten ‘Geschichte des Agathon’ gestellte – moralphilosophische und literarische – Frage versteht” (Entzweiung 19). I have chosen the version from 1794 because I believe that it provides the most interesting comparison with Rousseau’s Emile. All Wieland quotations are taken from the Hamburg edition C.M. Wieland S¨ammtliche Werke (1984), abbreviated SW, unless otherwise stated. The first number refers to the volume, the second to the page number. For example SW 3:242 refers to volume 3, page 242. I employ a similar notation system for Wieland’s Briefwechsel, Der Teutsche Merkur, and other multivolume works. 1.1. PEDAGOGIES OF THE IMAGINATION 2 and reason, coexist in harmony.2 Yet despite similar goals, Rousseau and Wieland di↵er significantly in their basic portrayals of education. With respect to the founda- tions and the trajectories of their protagonists’ development, Rousseau and Wieland o↵er contradictory educational models. Moreover, they also assume widely di↵ering positions on the structure and function of narrative.3 However, what remains con- stant in Emile and Agathon is the pivotal role assigned to the imagination in the formation of a moral individual. The central claim of this dissertation is that despite fundamental di↵erences in pedagogical and narrative method, Rousseau and Wieland ultimately come to similar conclusions about how to reconcile human nature and civil society. Both authors develop their own pedagogy of the imagination in an e↵ort to move beyond the nature/culture dichotomy. 2When discussing Emile, I do not avoid the masculine term “man” or the corresponding masculine pronoun “he.” Although I believe Rousseau’s analysis has relevance for all human beings irrespective of gender, it is important to remember that Rousseau did not. The following quotation suffices to demonstrate the strength of his gender stereotypes: “When women are what they ought to be, they will limit themselves to things within their competence and will always judge well. But since they have established themselves as the arbiters of literature, since they have set about judging books and relentlessly producing them, they no longer know anything” (Emile 341).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Atheist's Bible: Diderot's 'Éléments De Physiologie'
    The Atheist’s Bible Diderot’s Éléments de physiologie Caroline Warman In off ering the fi rst book-length study of the ‘Éléments de physiologie’, Warman raises the stakes high: she wants to show that, far from being a long-unknown draf , it is a powerful philosophical work whose hidden presence was visible in certain circles from the Revolut on on. And it works! Warman’s study is original and st mulat ng, a historical invest gat on that is both rigorous and fascinat ng. —François Pépin, École normale supérieure, Lyon This is high-quality intellectual and literary history, the erudit on and close argument suff used by a wit and humour Diderot himself would surely have appreciated. —Michael Moriarty, University of Cambridge In ‘The Atheist’s Bible’, Caroline Warman applies def , tenacious and of en wit y textual detect ve work to the case, as she explores the shadowy passage and infl uence of Diderot’s materialist writ ngs in manuscript samizdat-like form from the Revolut onary era through to the Restorat on. —Colin Jones, Queen Mary University of London ‘Love is harder to explain than hunger, for a piece of fruit does not feel the desire to be eaten’: Denis Diderot’s Éléments de physiologie presents a world in fl ux, turning on the rela� onship between man, ma� er and mind. In this late work, Diderot delves playfully into the rela� onship between bodily sensa� on, emo� on and percep� on, and asks his readers what it means to be human in the absence of a soul.
    [Show full text]
  • Jean Meslier Düşüncesinde Ateizmin Temel Dayanakları Ve Eleştirisi
    Jean Meslier Düşüncesinde Ateizmin Temel Dayanakları ve Eleştirisi Habib Şener Öz Tanrı inancına tepki olarak ortaya çıkmış olan ateizm, düşünce tarihindeki en önemli problemlerden birisidir. Ateist düşünceyi savunan Jean Meslier, 1664- 1729 yılları arasında yaşamış Fransız rahip ve filozoftur. 1689 yılında papazlık yapmaya başlayan Meslier, yaşadığı bazı sorunlardan dolayı sonradan ateist olmuştur. Başta Hıristiyanlık olmak üzere ilahî dinleri hedef alıp ateist iddialarını ortaya koymaya çalışmıştır. Onun ölümünden sonra yayımlanan ve Türkçe’ye Sağduyu adı ile çevrilmiş olan tek bir kitabı vardır. Bu çalışmada Meslier’in ateizme dayanak olarak ortaya koyduğu madde ve kötülük problemi hakkındaki görüşleri ele alınıp değerlendirilecektir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Tanrı, Teizm, Ateizm, Madde, Kötülük Problemi. Basics and Critique of Atheism in Jean Meslier's Thought Abstract Atheism, which has emerged as a reaction to the belief in God, is one of the most important problems in the history of thought. Jean Meslier, who defended the atheist idea, was a French priest and philosopher who lived between 1664-1729. Meslier started to be a priest in 1689 and later became an atheist because of some problems he experienced. He tried to reveal atheist claims by targeting the religions, especially Christianity. There is only one book published after his death, translated into Turkish with the name Sağduyu. In this work, Meslier's views on matter and the problem of evil which he put forward as a basis for atheism will be evaluated. Keywords: God, Theism, Atheism, Matter, The Problem of Evil. Yrd. Doç. Dr., Kafkas Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Felsefe ve Din Bilimleri Bölümü Öğretim Üyesi, e-mail: [email protected] Uludağ Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 27 (2018/1) 176▪ Habib Şener Giriş Tanrı inancı karşısında tepkisel bir düşünceyi dile getiren ateizm,1 Yunanca’da olumsuzluk bildiren “a” önekiyle, Tanrı anlamına gelen “theos”un birleşiminden meydana gelen ve Tanrı’nın var olmadığı inancına dayanan felsefî kavramdır.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Introduction 2 What Is Logical Space?
    Notes 1 Introduction 1. The term (logischer Raum in German) “originates in Boltzmann’s general- ized thermodynamics, which treats the independent properties of a physical system as defining separate coordinates in a multidimensional system the points of which constitute the ‘ensemble of possible states’” (Hans-Johann Glock 1996: 220). 2. One might object here (as, indeed, an anonymous referee did during the book proposal submission stage) that recent speculative theories in physics, like Max Tegmark’s mathematical universe (or great ensemble theory), and, more generally, multiverse theories are examples of scientists dealing with logical space at the most fundamental level. However, this objection is misguided. The multiverse is not the same as a logical space; the multiverse is a hypoth- esis about the actual world, namely that it contains many spatio-temporally and causally disconnected universes. One can conceive of other worlds where there is no multiverse, but only one universe. This is obvious by the very fact that the multiverse is a hypothesis, which, for all we know, could be true or false. It must then be the case that there are open epistemic possibilities corresponding to whether the world is a multiverse or a universe. So the multiverse or the “great ensemble” is simply not enough to serve as a logical space. Also, there is virtually no discussion even in these highly speculative approaches in theoretical physics about the nature of modality, possible worlds, and so on. 3. Tractatus, 3.42: “A proposition can determine only one place in logical space: nevertheless the whole of logical space must already be given by it.
    [Show full text]
  • Jean Meslier and "The Gentle Inclination of Nature"
    Jean Meslier and "The Gentle Inclination of Nature" translated by Marvin Mandell I. Of a Certain Jean Meslier HOW ASTONISHING that the prevailing historiography finds no place for an atheist priest in the reign of Louis XIV. More than that, he was a revolutionary communist and internationalist, an avowed materialist, a convinced hedonist, an authentically passionate and vindictively, anti-Christian prophet, but also, and above all, a philosopher in every sense of the word, a philosopher proposing a vision of the world that is coherent, articulated, and defended step by step before the tribunal of the world, without any obligation to conventional Western reasoning. Jean Meslier under his cassock contained all the dynamite at the core of the 18th century. This priest with no reputation and without any memorial furnishes an ideological arsenal of the thought of the Enlightenment's radical faction, that of the ultras, all of whom, drinking from his fountain, innocently pretend to be ignorant of his very name. A number of his theses earn for his borrowers a reputation only won by usurping his work. Suppressed references prevent the reverence due to him. His work? Just a single book, but what a book! A monster of more than a thousand manuscript pages, written with a goose quill pen under the glimmer of the fireplace and candles in an Ardennes vicarage between the so-called Great Century and the one following, called the Enlightenment, which he endorsed, by frequent use of the word, the sealed fate of the 18th century. A handwritten book, never published during the lifetime of its author, probably read by no one other than by its conceiver.
    [Show full text]
  • El Estratonismo En El Materialismo Ilustrado: El Caso Sade Stratonism in Enlightenment Materialism: Sade
    Daimon. Revista Internacional de Filosofía, en prensa, aceptado para publicación tras revisión por pares doble ciego. ISSN: 1130-0507 (papel) y 1989-4651 (electrónico) http://dx.doi.org/10.6018/daimon.423911 Licencia Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 3.0 España (texto legal). Se pueden copiar, usar, difundir, transmitir y exponer públicamente, siempre que: i) se cite la autoría y la fuente original de su publicación (revista, editorial y URL de la obra); ii) no se usen para fines comerciales; iii) se mencione la existencia y especificaciones de esta licencia de uso. El estratonismo en el materialismo ilustrado: el caso Sade Stratonism in Enlightenment materialism: Sade NATALIA L. ZORRILLA1 Resumen Este artículo tiene como objetivo estudiar el proceso de articulación del “estratonismo”, constructo histórico-filosófico creado en torno a la figura de Estratón de Lámpsaco, en la Ilustración francesa. Argumentaremos que el materialismo ateo ilustrado incorpora elementos estratonistas, centralmente la idea de la naturaleza como potencia productiva ciega. Nos abocaremos a reconstruir tal proceso de articulación, concentrándonos en la obra de autores de posiciones diversas (incluso opuestas entre sí) como Cudworth, Bayle y d’Holbach. Examinaremos a continuación la reapropiación crítica del estratonismo que realiza Braschi, uno de los personajes filósofos de la obra Histoire de Juliette de Sade, en su cosmovisión materialista atea. Palabras clave: Estratonismo; Materialismo ateo; Ilustración francesa; Bayle; Sade. Abstract This article aims at studying the emergence of “stratonism”, a historical and philosophical construct created around Strato of Lampsacus’s figure and ideas, in the French Enlightenment. The paper argues that Enlightenment atheist materialism embraces diverse stratonist elements, mainly the idea of nature as blind productive power.
    [Show full text]
  • Le Testament by Jean Meslier: the Pioneering Work of the Militant Atheism in France
    STUDIA HISTORICA GEDANENSIA TOM VII (2016) Aleksandra Porada (SWPS University of Social Sciences) Le Testament by Jean Meslier: the Pioneering Work of the Militant Atheism in France The ongoing debate of the ‘laicization’ of the Western intellectual production during the Enlightenment seems to be far from being closed. Still, we cannot deny that the attitudes towards both the ecclesiastical institutions and Christian beliefs in Western Europe started to change in the end of the 17th c. In France, one of the centers of the intellectual life of the West, the process called ‘dechris‑ tianization’ was manifest at many levels – beginning from the peasants becoming less generous in paying for masses when losing a relative, up to the disputes of intellectuals about delicate questions of theology. Paradoxically, the most radical thinker of the epoch, Jean Meslier (1664– 1729), remains relatively little known even to the historians of ideas. His life remains rather obscure, for he was just a modest priest working all his life in a village; his work seems to have been far too radical to be printed in an unabridged version till mid‑19th c., but also simply too long to be read by more than a handful of students. And yet, Meslier’s Testament deserves to be studied closely. It is the first known treaty about the non‑existence of God in the French language, and a classic of materialist philosophy as well; and an uncompromis‑ ing attack on religious institutions followed by a radically new vision of an egalitarian society which made Meslier a pioneer of both atheist and commu‑ nist thought.
    [Show full text]
  • Mauro Pesce the Beginning of Historical Research on Jesus in The
    Mauro Pesce University of Bologna [email protected] Tel +39 349 576 44 50 The Beginning of Historical Research on Jesus in the Modern Age 1. New Understandings of the Historical Figure of Jesus in Modern Age Is generally affirmed that the history of the research on the historical Jesus begins with H.S.Reimarus on the influence of Deism and Enlightenment (an idea that rests on a book published more than a century ago by A. Schweitzer1) and that is characterized by a series of phases or stages that culminate in the “last quest”. The aim of these pages is to present a critique of both these opinions. In fact, the tentative to reconstruct an image of Jesus independently from the theological interpretations of the Churches is already attested at the beginnings of the fifteenth century. Secondly, the history of the research must be understood not in the frame of a linear historical evolution that proceeds by subsequent phases, but in the light of a social history that takes into considerations the constant conflicting attitudes of different coexisting intellectual and academic institutions of Modern Age: Catholic theological Faculties, Protestant theological Faculties, and independent academic institutions and scholars. The first condition that made it possible a new historical research on Jesus was humanism which emphasized reading texts in the original language and which, starting at the beginning of the fourteenth century, influenced biblical research by bringing in a new understanding of early Christian concepts (for example metanoia versus poenitentia) in light of the Jewish and Greek cultures in which they were produced.
    [Show full text]
  • Testament Memoir of the Thoughts and Sentiments of Jean Meslier
    Testament Memoir Of The Thoughts And Sentiments Of Jean Meslier Spined and swordless Kareem mercurialising so boundlessly that Shepperd dolomitizing his jereed. Mnemotechnic and simplified Ignacio proverbs tempestuously and jewel his plumbing concernedly and simply. Bryological Ignazio splines, his upas warn sabotage compositely. That he eventually committed atheism is a bit of reason by these systems of the of argument further, the grand source of unbelief Beginning of the French Enlightenment. Meslier was not recognized by religious cultures in christianity of the testament thoughts and sentiments meslier. What goes on the method of meslier of the and testament: a word ÔbeliefÕ and virtue. Testament memoir of the thoughts and sentiments of jean jean. And why do we move sometimes in an imperfect way, if God, who is responsible for every mouvement, is infallible? The thought alone of such cruelty is monstrous. This represents the more perfect way of life, and this principle was represented in the organization of the monastic life, as it gradually took shape. She, in his view, had sufficient intellect, education and courage to grasp the truth. Tout is a cult which the interest in and the human! There may be noted in any other words must sometimes exterminated, ole peter and seventeenth centuriesÕ use unowned property, thoughts and testament of the sentiments, at stake in. God simply does not exist and no soul lives on after death. The same ground that led directly to the testament of meslier and sentiments of atheistical principlesÓ had to be found in considering their discoveries. In the end, he says, her body would succumb.
    [Show full text]
  • A Developed Dynamic Reference Work
    The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A Developed Dynamic Reference Work Colin Allen∗ Philosophy Department Texas A&M University Uri Nodelman† Computer Science Department Stanford University Edward N. Zalta‡ Center for the Study of Language and Information Stanford University 1 Introduction A fundamental problem faced by the general public and the members of an academic discipline in the information age is how to find the most author- itative, comprehensive, and up-to-date information about an important topic. The present information explosion is the source of this problem— more ideas than ever before are being published in print, on CD-ROM, and in a variety of forms on the Internet. One can nowadays use library search engines and web-indexing engines to generate lists of publications and websites about a topic and then access them immediately if they are ∗Professor of Philosophy at Texas A&M University, Principal Programmer and Associate Editor of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy †Graduate Student in Computer Science at Stanford University, Associate Pro- grammer and Assistant Editor of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ‡Senior Research Scholar at Stanford University, Project Director and Principal Editor of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 1 online. But even limited area search engines can produce thousands of matches to keywords and even with new interface tools to narrow the search, one is typically confronted with a list that is not informed by hu- man judgment. If one wants an introduction to a topic that is organized by an expert, if one wants a summary of the current state of research, or if one wants a bibliography of print and online works that has been filtered on the basis of informed human judgment, there are few places to turn.
    [Show full text]
  • Comparison Between Atheism, Agnosticism and Humanism
    http://www.inosr.net/inosr-applied-sciences/ Tallulah and Mishka INOSR APPLIED SCIENCES 1(1): 14-20, 2015 ©INOSR PUBLICATIONS International Network Organization for Scientific Research ISSN: 2705-165X Comparison between Atheism, Agnosticism and Humanism Tallulah Rebecca and Mishka Joshua Department of religious studies, Faculty of Theology and Religion University of Pretoria, South Africa Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT This article reviews the Comparison thinking and evidence (rationalism and between Atheism, Agnosticism and empiricism) over acceptance of dogma or Humanism. Atheism is, in the broadest superstition. The words atheist and sense, an absence of belief in the existence agnostic conjure up a number of different of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a perceptions and meanings. When it comes rejection of the belief that any deities exist. to questioning the existence of gods, the Agnosticism is the view that the existence subject is a tricky one that is often of God, of the divine or the supernatural is misunderstood. No matter what their unknown or unknowable. Humanism is a reasons or how they approach the philosophical and ethical stance that question, agnostics and atheists are emphasizes the value and agency of fundamentally different, but also non- human beings, individually and exclusive. collectively, and generally prefers critical Keywords: Comparison, Atheism, Agnosticism Humanism INTRODUCTION Atheism is, in the broadest sense, an application of the term narrowed in absence of belief in the existence of scope. The first individuals to identify deities. Less broadly, atheism is a themselves using the word atheist lived in rejection of the belief that any deities the 18th century during the Age of exist.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophy Reading List ______
    Philosophy Reading List _________________________________________ INTRODUCTION We are delighted that you are joining us in the Philosophy Faculty this Autumn. A few ideas for exploratory Summer reading meanwhile: • Simon Blackburn, Think (1999) • Edward Craig, Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2002) • Bernard Williams, Morality: An Introduction to Ethics (1972) • Daniel C. Dennett, Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking (2013) • René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, ed. J. Cottingham (1641) • David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748) • J. L. Mackie, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong (1977) • Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848) • J. S. Mill, On Liberty (1869); The Subjection of Women (1869) • Thomas Nagel, Mortal Questions (1979) • Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality, ed. M. Clark and A. Swensen (1887) Plato, The Last Days of Socrates ed. Tredennick (Penguin Classics) • Graham Priest, Logic: A Very Short Introduction (2000) • Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (1912) • Michael Sandel, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? (2009) • Jonathan Wolff, An Introduction to Political Philosophy (1996) See below for links to online philosophy encyclopedia, commentary, and podcasts. Our advice is to follow your interests and keep in mind that one often gets more from close- reading a single work than from skimming several. If you have questions or would like more guidance for a specific topic, please don’t hesitate to email me ([email protected]).
    [Show full text]
  • Index Nominum
    Cambridge University Press 0521418542 - The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Philosophy Edited by Knud Haakonssen Index More information INDEX NOMINUM Abbt, Thomas, 802–803 Anselm, 712, 735, 746 Abernethy, John, 718 Aquinas, Thomas, 86, 428, 647, 667, 738, Achilles, 183 739, 989 Adam, 15 , 200, 426, 454, 466, 477–479 Arbuthnot, John, 189, 1118 Adams, John, 210 Argens, Jean-Baptiste de Boyer d’, 125, 126 Adams, William, 699–700, 701 Argus, 485 Adanson, Michel, 906, 907 Aristotle, 35, 86, 100, 113, 141, 142, 143, 196, Addison, Joseph, 29, 55, 216, 509, 526–527, 211, 252, 275, 278, 320, 324, 344, 368, 531, 532, 718 389, 480, 497, 509, 516, 530, 539, 559, Aikenhead, Thomas, 685 631, 819–820, 854, 856, 859, 874, 903, Aikin, John, 110 908, 914, 919, 1029–1030, 1051 Albertus Magnus, 1088 Arnauld, Antoine, 234, 243–244, 245, 498, Aldrich, Henry, 265, 838, 840 500, 1113, 1114 Aldrovandi, Ulysses, 903 Arndt, Hans Werner, 141 d’Alembert, Jean le Rond, 35–36, 46, 64, Arthur, Archibald, 720–721 127, 249, 336–337, 399, 434, 499–500, Astell, Mary, 202, 210, 216–217 507–508, 512, 557, 622, 759, 793, 817, Atkey, Anthony, 715 818, 820, 821–822, 824, 826, 832, 833, Augustine, 516, 736, 1117 925, 973, 1078 Augustus, 454 on ideas, 249 Austen, Jane, 510 on the imagination, 259 Austin, John, 1057 on knowledge and sciences, 857, 861, 863, Azpilcueta, Martinus de (Navarro), 1072, 867–868, 873–874, 875, 877, 889, 898, 1073 899, 904–905 on philosophy, conception of, 35–36 Bacon, Francis, 3, 7, 11, 26, 28, 36, 47, 48, Alexander, 464 106, 140, 141, 145, 148,
    [Show full text]