University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2011 Philosophical Precursors to the Radical Enlightenment: Vignettes on the Struggle Between Philosophy and Theology From the Greeks to Leibniz With Special Emphasis on Spinoza Anthony John Desantis University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, History of Religion Commons, and the Philosophy Commons Scholar Commons Citation Desantis, Anthony John, "Philosophical Precursors to the Radical Enlightenment: Vignettes on the Struggle Between Philosophy and Theology From the Greeks to Leibniz With Special Emphasis on Spinoza" (2011). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3067 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Philosophical Precursors to the Radical Enlightenment: Vignettes on the Struggle Between Philosophy and Theology from the Greeks to Leibniz With Special Emphasis on Spinoza by Anthony John DeSantis A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Roger Ariew Ph. D. Douglas Jesseph, Ph.D. Thomas Williams, Ph. D. Charles Guignon, Ph. D. Date of Approval April 8, 2011 Keywords: Radical Enlightenment, precursors, rationalism, Christianity Copyright © 2011, Anthony John DeSantis Once again (as in my master’s thesis), to you, my father, Anthony John DeSantis, from whom I owe so much, and to whom I am deeply grateful. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “Give honor to whom honor is due” I learned from my parents and from a great Pentecostal preacher long ago that we are all indebted to the people who have helped us in our lives. We owe them. I have a lot of debts to a lot of people. And all these, in one way or another, helped me to get to this point. First and foremost, I want to thank my mom and dad, to whom I dedicated my Master’s Degree. This time around, I want most to thank my father, Anthony John DeSantis, to whom I am forever deeply indebted and grateful. Thanks for your love, perseverance, and help through all the many years, Dad. Secondly, I must thank my children for their love and friendship. They’re the creatures that I’ve been living for since they were born: Ruth, Anthony, Leah, and Keri. Were I not so greatly in debt to my father, this work most certainly would have been dedicated to you. I am therefore obligated to write further works of which to dedicate to you to express my love and dedication. I have to also thank my brothers Robby, Joey, Billy, and Frank. Thanks for your generosity in flying my kids up for New York Christmas’s, Guys. Thanks, Frank, for taking them skiing, for your expertise and help on the mortgage for AJ, and for your incredible generosity to my kids. I must thank Billy and Donna Cuthill also for their incredible generosity, large-heartedness, and help with Ruth, and for the many kindnesses to me over the years. Gratefulness to the magnificent Tracy Suzanne Smith for her love and help over many years. Tracy (the woman I have loved these last eleven years) died this past Christmas Eve. Mere words cannot convey how much she is missed. I’d like to thank my friends for their ear and endurance listening to my never-ending rants about philosophy and Christianity over the many years. Thanks, guys: to Barry Flynn, my dear friend Dan Hedberg, Frank Hofmeister, Larry Johannesson, Vinny Rosini, and Don Williams. Special thanks to Frank Hofmeister for his kindness and generosity over the years and to Vinny Rosini for all the generous and fun R & R trips. I must thank Stan French, my father-in-law, whose friendship and help to me and to my kids to get through a painful, family tragedy will always be gratefully cherished. Thanks also to his wife Dorothy and daughter Nancy French. In my last master’s thesis in Humanities from Rollins College I neglected to acknowledge and thank the following for monies I received to fund my studies there. Thanks to Florida Hospital and Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences, especially to Marley Soper, Don Williams, and Dave Greenlaw for their generosity and help. I also must not neglect to thank Professor Charles Landesman who a long time ago took an interest in me in my undergraduate studies at Hunter College and helped get me into the graduate program in philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. I sometimes wonder if this dissertation would have ever come to be had he not graciously taken out the time for me. Last but not least, I owe a lot of the pleasure and the success of this dissertation to the principal supervisor of my doctoral committee, Professor Roger Ariew. I thank him for the enormous amount of time and energy he took out from his busy, professional life to discuss a million things about philosophy with me. Working closely with one of the world’s greatest early modern philosophy scholars was not only immensely exciting to me, and a privilege that I never took for granted, but there was also so much else I learned that are essential for new scholars entering the field of their choosing – how the business of philosophy works in universities and colleges, the business of publishing, finding out what goes behind the scenes at conferences, who’s who, who’s a jerk, who’s a conniver, etceteras. I am also obligated to write future works to dedicate to him to express my thanks and obligation. Thanks much, Professor Ariew. A.D. Tampa, Florida TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................................. vi PREFACE ................................................................................................................................................................... viii PART I: INTRODUCTION: RADICAL VERSUS RELIGIOUS ENLIGHTENMENT .................................. 2 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 2 Chapter One: Defining the “Enlightenment” ................................................................................. 2 Introduction: Defining the “Enlightenment”: the need for clarity on the use of this term .......................................................................................................... 8 Defining the “Enlightenment”: first definition .............................................................. 8 Defining the war between moderate, radical, and the counter- enlightenment ................................................................................................................. 12 The Counter Enlightenment and its definition of “enlightenment” .................. 15 The Counter-Enlightenment .............................................................................. 15 Defining “Enlightenment”: second definition ............................................. 20 Defining the history of the “Enlightenment” ............................................................... 25 The Meaning and Triumphs of the Radical Enlightenment ................................. 27 PART II: PRECURSORS TO THE RADICAL ENLIGHTENMENT: THE GREEK ENLIGHTENMENT ......................................................................................................................................... 34 Chapter Two: The Greeks as Precursors ...................................................................................... 34 Introduction: subject and plan of chapter ................................................................... 34 Jonathan Israel’s account of the Greeks as precursors to the Radical Enlightenment via Renaissance humanist scholarship to Enlightenment new scholarship .............................................................................. 36 The Greeks as precursors to the Radical Enlightenment via humanist scholarship.................................................................................... 37 The Greeks as precursors to the Radical Enlightenment via early Enlightenment scholarship ............................................................. 40 Enlightenment thinkers see rationalist Greek philosophy as a source for human enlightenment ............................................................ 43 The Greek Enlightenment in further context: from mythology to rationalism ....................................................................................................................... 47 The Greek Enlightenment of Socrates and Plato in comparison to orthodox Greek religious dogma (with some comparisons to the Bible) ................................................................................................................................... 52 Greek religious orthodoxy and Socrates’-Plato’s philosophical enlightenment .................................................................................................. 52 Plato versus the orthodox Greek religious world view .......................... 55 How enlightened were Socrates and Plato? ................................................ 59 Transition