DOCSLIB.ORG

Between Empiricism and Platonism: the Concept of Reason in Locke's

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Between Empiricism and Platonism: the Concept of Reason in Locke's Between Empiricism and Platonism: The Concept of Reason in Locke’s Philosophy Elisabeth Thorsson PhD University of York Philosophy September 2016 Abstract Locke has long been read in the light of the ideas of Hobbes, that is, as a materialist philosopher, endorsing a conventional view of morality. Hobbes does this through an instrumentalist interpretation of the human reason and Epicurean naturalism (i.e. the hypothesis that everything is made of atoms). Even though Locke’s writings are replete with expressions of his Christian thought, scholars have suggested that Locke is committed to an empirical stance underwritten by these ultimately Epicurean commitments. There is, therefore, a tension in Locke’s philosophy between three divergent thought complexes: his empiricism, his commitment to Christianity, and what seems to be a form of scepticism. This tension poses an interpretative problem, especially concerning Locke’s claims about morality and theology, and the sincerity of his commitment to God. The Hobbist interpretation of Locke has gained ground in recent years, and as a result, Locke’s religious philosophy has been criticised for being either irrelevant or inconsistent. The purpose of this thesis is to engage in and refute that line of criticism by demonstrating that it is possible to give an alternative and richer account of Locke’s intellectual background. By focusing on Locke’s conception of reason, I trace new sources through an overlooked history of ideas from the ancient Platonic tradition, the Stoics, and the Jewish Neo-Platonist philosopher Philo of Alexandria, to the so-called Cambridge Platonists. In particular, I reinterpret Locke’s definition of reason in the light of the Platonist tradition, as containing certain metaphysical and universal traits that are inherently Platonist, and not as something instrumental. The Cambridge Platonists were prominently engaged in a debate against Hobbes, aiming to refute his materialism and arguing for the retainment of a classical understanding of the concept of reason in order to save Christian ethics from Epicureanism and atheism. With this thesis, I show that this debate was very much alive and present to Locke, which he also crucially partook in, and that he in fact sides with the Platonists more so than with Hobbes. 2 Content page Abstract 2 Abbreviations 7 Acknowledgements 8 Declaration 9 Chapter 1 Locke as the ‘Hobbist’ 1.1 Shaftesbury’s Allegations 11 1.2 Locke’s Empiricist Epistemology 17 - Moral Conventionalism - Locke’ Hedonistic Psychology - The will of God 1.3 Locke’s Contemporary reception 34 1.4 Locke’s Reception Today 42 1.5 Conclusion and Chapter overviews 53 Chapter 2 From Epicureanism to Voluntarism and Hobbism in the17th Century 2.1 Epicurean philosophy 58 2.2 Voluntarism and Rationalism: Plato’s Euthryphro’s dilemma 64 - The Problem of Euthyphro 2.3 The Epicurean revival in the 17th century 69 - Gassendi and theological voluntarism - Epicureanism in Hobbes 3 Chapter 3 From Platonism to Philo of Alexandria: Reason as the Logos 3.1 Platonism: on the Soul and the Roots of Innatism 80 3.2 The Stoic Logos 84 3.3 Philo of Alexandria – the Adopted Bishop 89 - Philo’s logos Chapter 4 Philo and Platonism in the 17th century Intellectual Context: From Grotius to the Cambridge Platonists Part I 4.1 Introduction 95 4.2 Philo and Philo Semitism in the 17th century. 96 4.3 Grotius, Philo, and the revival of Natural Law 99 4.4 Selden and Hobbes response to right reason 104 Part II 4.5 The Cambridge Platonists 115 - The Cambridge Platonists and Philo-Semitism 4.6 The Cambridge Platonists on Reason: The Candle of the Lord 123 4.7 Theology in the Cambridge Platonists: Reason and Grace 137 4.8 Epistemology in the Cambridge Platonists 145 4 Chapter 5 Locke’s Platonism and the Cambridge Platonists 5. 1 Locke and Platonism – the Scholarly Context 152 5. 2 Locke’s Education – Natural law and Philo-Semitism 158 - Locke and Philo 5.3 Locke and the Cambridge Platonists 169 - Locke’s notes on the Immortality and Immateriality of the Soul 5.4 Locke and Damaris: The 1682 Correspondence 176 - Divine knowledge – Damaris’s First Question - Smith’s Division of Knowledge - Locke’s reply - Enthusiasm – Damaris’ second question 5. 5 Conclusions 198 Chapter 6 Rethinking Locke: Locke’s Proof of God’s Existence and the ‘Thinking Matter’ Thesis as a Rejection of Materialism Part I. On Locke’s proof of God’s existence 6.1 Locke’s Definition of Reason 201 6.2 Locke on Enthusiasm and the Critique of the ‘Inner Light’ 203 6.3 Locke’s epistemology reconsidered 208 6.4 Locke’s Proof of God’s Existence 218 6.5 Knowledge of God - through the light of reason and meditation 235 Part II. The Thinking Matter Controversy 6.6 Introducing ‘Thinking matter’ 244 6.7 Conclusion thought not material 254 5 Chapter 7 On Locke’s Theory of Personal Identity and Theology Part I. On Locke’s Theory of Personal Identity 7.1 Locke’s Theory of Personal Identity: from Cudworth to Consciousness 256 7.2 Locke’s Concept of Consciousness 258 7.3 Soul, Substance and the Afterlife 266 Part II. On Locke’s Theology 7.4 Introduction – Locke’s theology 269 - Adam: the Image and the Fall - Jesus Christ - The Second Adam 7.5 The Law of Faith and the Law of Works 281 7.6 Locke’s Christology 286 Chapter 8 Conclusions and Further Research 8.1 Conclusions and summary 297 8.2 A Reply to Third Earl of Shaftesbury 303 8.3 Further research 306 Bibliography 309 6 List of Abbreviations Conduct Locke, J. The Conduct of Human Understanding, (Ed., Grant, Ruth and Tarcov, Nathan.) Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1996 DRN Lucretius, De rerum natura, (Eng. tr. W. H. D. Rouse, revised by Martin Ferguson Smith), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992. Essay Locke, J., An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Clarendon ed. P. H. Nidditch ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975. Essays Locke J., Essays on the Law of Nature: 1676. (ed. Wolfgang von Leyden), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970 KJV The Holy Bible, King James Version, Collins Bible, 1958 LWP Grotius, Hugo, De Jure Belli Ac Pacis Libri Tres [On the Law of War and Peace: Three Books] vol. 2, (trans. Kelsey, Francis W.) Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925 Opfis. Philo, On the Creation, in Leonhardt-Balzer, Jutta, ‘Creation, the Logos and the Foundation of a City’, in Philo und das Neue Testament, (ed. Roland Deines; Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr), Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004) pp. 323-344 TCE Locke, J. Some Thoughts Concerning Education, (eds., Yolton, John W. and Yolton, Jean S.,) Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989 TIS Cudworth, Ralph. The True Intellectual System of the Universe, London: Richard Royston, 1678 TT Locke, J., Two Treatises of Government ed. P. Laslett, Cambridge: CUP, 1960. WR Locke J. The Reasonableness of Christianity as Delivered in the Scriptures, in Writings on Religion. (ed., Victor Nuovo.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. DL Laërtius, Diogenes. Life of Eminent Philosophers, translated by R. D. Hicks. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972 7 Acknowledgements I first want to thank my supervisor Tom Stoneham, and his patience in seeing this thesis through with me to the very end. His kindness, understanding, and intellectual and moral support have been inexhaustible and invaluable, for which I am immensely grateful and could not have done without. I am also indebted to Timothy Stanton for his advice and insightful discussions at the earliest stages of this project. I would also like to thank Catherine Wilson for giving me the opportunity to embark on this journey to pursue a doctorate of Philosophy here at the University of York. I would express special thanks to Victor Nuovo for sharing some of his unpublished work and thoughts on Locke, and for his illuminating and helpful correspondence; and to Sarah Hutton for her discussions that has given me both inspiration and confidence to work on the Cambridge Platonists. I am also especially grateful to John Blechl, Rob Davis, Emma Martin and Peter O’Reilly for their help with the proof reading and to Johan Gustafsson and Rodolfo Garau for their help with valuable and insightful comments. I would also like to thank, Julie Kay, Lisa Webster, Janet Eldred, Carol Dixon and Colin Harris for all their administrative support, patience and enthusiasm over the years. I am also grateful to the Royal Institute of Philosophy for funding my project in 2014- 2015. I also want to say a big thank you to my friends and colleagues at the Department of Politics at York: Nihan Toprakkiran, William Vittery, Adam Fusco, John Mellors, Robin Jervis, Benjamin Chwistek, Rusen Yasar, Fay Farstad, James Hickson, Michael Bennet and David Landon Cole - for their moral support, intellectual stimulus and ‘pure banter’ over the years. I also wish to thank Tom Bywater, Jack Warman, and Gerardo de Jesús Cabrera Morán, and many more, for their friendship and support over the years. Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to Sally Guthrie for her friendship, love and support over the years here at York. I also want to thank Roland Hall and the Homer crew: John, Jeremy, Anthony and Philip, for being an intellectually inspiring part of the journey. And, last but not least, I wish to thank my parents, without their love and financial support none of this would have been possible. York, January 2018 8 Declaration I declare that this thesis is a presentation of original work. All sources are acknowledged in the bibliography and that due credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. 9 Reason is natural Revelation, whereby the eternal Father of Light, the Fountain of all Knowledge communicated to Mankind that portion of Truth, which he has laid within the reach of their natural Faculties - Locke, Essay IV.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Judaica Collections Revised Feb 06.Pub
    University of Aberdeen Special Libraries and Archives The Judaica Collections The Aberdeen Codex of the Hebrew Bible (Naples, 1493-94.) Illumination at the beginning of Isaiah (AUL MS 23. Fol. 186v.) An Information Document University of Aberdeen Development Trust King’s College Aberdeen Scotland, UK AB24 3FX t. +44 (0) 1224 272097 f. +44 (0) 1224 272271 The University of Aberdeen, formed in 1860 by THE BIESENTHAL COLLECTION the amalgamation of the fifteenth-century King’s College and the sixteenth-century The most significant of our Hebrew holdings — Marischal College, has a rich collection of Ju- in the sense of combining quality with sheer daica. This reflects the University’s continuous quantity — is the Biesenthal collection, ac- commitment to the study of Hebrew and Rab- quired from Dr Biesenthal in Leipzig in the binic literature, and the collection, scholarship 1870s, and permanently deposited in Historic and publication in connection with these stud- Collections in 1968. ies. It also reflects a wider interest and sympa- thy which can be traced from the early- This is undoubtedly one of the most complete seventeenth century acquisition of the glorious collections of Rabbinic literature in Britain. Half Codex of the Hebrew Bible, which remains one of its 2,140 volumes are in Hebrew, and repre- of the University’s greatest treasures, to the sent what was described by the Aberdeen Uni- twentieth-century activities of the Hays of versity Review as ‘a comprehensive selection Seton. of all that was published in Hebrew practically from the invention of printing to the time of the CONTEMPORARY CONNECTIONS sale of Dr Biesenthal’s library’ .
    [Show full text]
  • Capper 1998 Phd Karl Barth's Theology Of
    Karl Barth’s Theology of Joy John Mark Capper Selwyn College Submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy University of Cambridge April 1998 Karl Barth’s Theology of Joy John Mark Capper, Selwyn College Cambridge, April 1998 Joy is a recurrent theme in the Church Dogmatics of Karl Barth but it is one which is under-explored. In order to ascertain reasons for this lack, the work of six scholars is explored with regard to the theme of joy, employing the useful though limited “motifs” suggested by Hunsinger. That the revelation of God has a trinitarian framework, as demonstrated by Barth in CD I, and that God as Trinity is joyful, helps to explain Barth’s understanding of theology as a “joyful science”. By close attention to Barth’s treatment of the perfections of God (CD II.1), the link which Barth makes with glory and eternity is explored, noting the far-reaching sweep which joy is allowed by contrast with the related theme of beauty. Divine joy is discerned as the response to glory in the inner life of the Trinity, and as such is the quality of God being truly Godself. Joy is seen to be “more than a perfection” and is basic to God’s self-revelation and human response. A dialogue with Jonathan Edwards challenges Barth’s restricted use of beauty in his theology, and highlights the innovation Barth makes by including election in his doctrine of God. In the context of Barth’s anthropology, paying close attention to his treatment of “being in encounter” (CD III.2), there is an examination of the significance of gladness as the response to divine glory in the life of humanity, and as the crowning of full and free humanness.
    [Show full text]
  • P E E L C H R Is T Ian It Y , Is L a M , an D O R Isa R E Lig Io N
    PEEL | CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM, AND ORISA RELIGION Luminos is the open access monograph publishing program from UC Press. Luminos provides a framework for preserving and rein- vigorating monograph publishing for the future and increases the reach and visibility of important scholarly work. Titles published in the UC Press Luminos model are published with the same high standards for selection, peer review, production, and marketing as those in our traditional program. www.luminosoa.org Christianity, Islam, and Orisa Religion THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF CHRISTIANITY Edited by Joel Robbins 1. Christian Moderns: Freedom and Fetish in the Mission Encounter, by Webb Keane 2. A Problem of Presence: Beyond Scripture in an African Church, by Matthew Engelke 3. Reason to Believe: Cultural Agency in Latin American Evangelicalism, by David Smilde 4. Chanting Down the New Jerusalem: Calypso, Christianity, and Capitalism in the Caribbean, by Francio Guadeloupe 5. In God’s Image: The Metaculture of Fijian Christianity, by Matt Tomlinson 6. Converting Words: Maya in the Age of the Cross, by William F. Hanks 7. City of God: Christian Citizenship in Postwar Guatemala, by Kevin O’Neill 8. Death in a Church of Life: Moral Passion during Botswana’s Time of AIDS, by Frederick Klaits 9. Eastern Christians in Anthropological Perspective, edited by Chris Hann and Hermann Goltz 10. Studying Global Pentecostalism: Theories and Methods, by Allan Anderson, Michael Bergunder, Andre Droogers, and Cornelis van der Laan 11. Holy Hustlers, Schism, and Prophecy: Apostolic Reformation in Botswana, by Richard Werbner 12. Moral Ambition: Mobilization and Social Outreach in Evangelical Megachurches, by Omri Elisha 13. Spirits of Protestantism: Medicine, Healing, and Liberal Christianity, by Pamela E.
    [Show full text]
  • SAGP SSIPS 2016 Abstracts
    Binghamton University The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB) The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter 10-2016 SAGP SSIPS 2016 Abstracts Anthony Preus Follow this and additional works at: https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Ancient Philosophy Commons, and the History of Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Preus, Anthony, "SAGP SSIPS 2016 Abstracts" (2016). The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter. 434. https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp/434 This Announcement is brought to you for free and open access by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion in The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter by an authorized administrator of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contact [email protected]. The 34th annual joint meeting of The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy (SAGP) with The Society for the Study of Islamic Philosophy and Science (SSIPS) Abstracts Collection October 28-30, 2016 Fordham University, Lincoln Center, New York 113 West 60th Street, New York, NY 10023 Corner of Columbus (9th) Avenue and West 60th Street Sponsored by Fordham University The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy (SAGP) The Society for the Study of Islamic Philosophy and Science (SSIPS) 2016 SAGP/SSIPS Conference Program, page 2 Claas Lattman, CAU Kiel, [email protected] 1A (Saturday 9:00) ROOM 502: “The Art of Land-Measuring. Diagrammatical Knowledge Between Egypt and Greece” Thales brought geometry from Egypt to Greece. Therefore he was the first Greek mathematician, wasn’t he? At least some of the ancients tell us so.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophy, Religion, and Heterodoxy in the Philosophy of Henry More, Ralph Cudworth, and Anne Conway
    Church History Church History and and Religious Culture 100 (2020) 157–171 Religious Culture brill.com/chrc Philosophy, Religion, and Heterodoxy in the Philosophy of Henry More, Ralph Cudworth, and Anne Conway Sarah Hutton University of York, York, UK [email protected] Abstract Philosophers who hold the compatibility of reason and faith, are vulnerable to the charge of opening the way to atheism and heterodoxy. This danger was particularly acute when, in the wake of Cartesianism, the philosophy of Spinoza and Hobbes neces- sitated a resetting of the relationship of philosophy with religion. My paper discusses three English philosophers who illustrate the difficulties for the philosophical defence for religion: Henry More, Ralph Cudworth, and Anne Conway, for all of whom philo- sophical and religious truth were deeply intertwined. But each of them also subscribed to heterodox religious beliefs. This raises questions of whether there is a direct the rela- tionship between their philosophy and religious heterodoxy—whether they exemplify the charge that philosophy undermines religion, or indeed whether their defence of religion was a cover for heterodoxy. Keywords atheism – heterodoxy – Platonism – Descartes – More – Cudworth – Conway 1 Introduction Accusations of atheism occur relatively frequently in the philosophico-theo- logical polemics of the seventeenth century.1 This is particularly the case with 1 The term “atheism” itself had broader sense than it does today as a blanket term for irreligion © sarah hutton, 2020 | doi:10.1163/18712428-10002002 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0Downloaded license. from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:06:06PM via free access 158 hutton Hobbes and Spinoza, but Cartesianism was seen by many as leading to athe- ism.
    [Show full text]
  • Romans 2 Sermon.Key
    Keeping the Law Romans 2 Presented at the Lighthouse by Garrett O’Hara on 24 January 2014. http://cadencelighthouse.org/ "Always preach in such a way that if the people listening do not come to hate their sin, they will instead hate you." ! ~ Martin Luther This is my first “sermon” as an adult, if you will, so I hope you come away from this thinking the former. LAW Maintains civil order / restrains sin ! Confronts sin; points us to Christ ! Teaches way of righteousness One of the most important points I’ve learned as of late is the distinction between law and gospel. Note that this isn’t OT versus NT. It’s also not just the Pentateuch. In fact, Paul uses the term ‘law’ in various contexts here, but I !want to examine what law means here. !Law does three things, and note that the Reformed and Lutheran versions of this may vary slightly. I’m really giving you the simple version here. Law [read the slide]. When we understand #2, the confrontation of sin and being pointed to Christ, two things happen. One, our faith inevitably produces good works. “I will show you my faith BY my works!” That’s the way of righteousness part. The other thing that happens is we begin to understand more and more how much we need Christ, because the way of righteousness is pretty darn hard, and no man will be justified by the law. In this period of redemptive history, I opine that we will always be bouncing between #2 and #3.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction Stephen Gersh
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-41528-6 — Plotinus' Legacy Edited by Stephen Gersh Excerpt More Information Introduction Stephen Gersh The almost continuous influence through two millennia of European history of Plotinus’ philosophical doctrine or of the philosophical move- ment that he founded, Neoplatonism, is a generally acknowledged fact. The term philosophia perennis was introduced by the Italian Augustinian Agostino Steuco (–) as referring to precisely this tradition and was understood in the same way at least until Leibniz. Acknowledgment of the continuous influence of Plotinus and Neoplatonism has often been qualified on the part of historians of philosophy by restricting that influ- ence to specific regions and epochs – for example, early twelfth-century France or late fifteenth-century Italy – or else by assigning it rather to “non-philosophical” disciplines such as theology or literature. However, the doctrines concerned have actually reappeared in many places and times besides those most generally noted by historians, while any permanently rigid demarcation between the genres of philosophy, theology, and litera- ture is questionable in practice. But before proceeding further with the main topic of the present undertaking, which is to understand and trace Plotinus’ legacy, it may be useful to state some basic facts about the ancient philosopher himself and his re-emergence on the European intellectual scene at the beginning of the modern era. Plotinus (ca. / to ) was the author of the Enneads, a set of philosophical treatises grouped in six sets of nine (Greek ennea = “nine”) and prefaced by a biography of the author by Porphyry. It appears from the biography that much of the organization of the Plotinian corpus, including the assignment of titles such as “On Beauty” or “On Providence” to individual treatises, was due to Porphyry, who had been Plotinus’ student in Rome, rather than to the master himself.
    [Show full text]
  • The Wesleyan Enlightenment
    The Wesleyan Enlightenment: Closing the gap between heart religion and reason in Eighteenth Century England by Timothy Wayne Holgerson B.M.E., Oral Roberts University, 1984 M.M.E., Wichita State University, 1986 M.A., Asbury Theological Seminary, 1999 M.A., Kansas State University, 2011 AN ABSTRACT OF A DISSERTATION submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History College of Arts and Sciences KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Manhattan, Kansas 2017 Abstract John Wesley (1703-1791) was an Anglican priest who became the leader of Wesleyan Methodism, a renewal movement within the Church of England that began in the late 1730s. Although Wesley was not isolated from his enlightened age, historians of the Enlightenment and theologians of John Wesley have only recently begun to consider Wesley in the historical context of the Enlightenment. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the complex relationship between a man, John Wesley, and an intellectual movement, the Enlightenment. As a comparative history, this study will analyze the juxtaposition of two historiographies, Wesley studies and Enlightenment studies. Surprisingly, Wesley scholars did not study John Wesley as an important theologian until the mid-1960s. Moreover, because social historians in the 1970s began to explore the unique ways people experienced the Enlightenment in different local, regional and national contexts, the plausibility of an English Enlightenment emerged for the first time in the early 1980s. As a result, in the late 1980s, scholars began to integrate the study of John Wesley and the Enlightenment. In other words, historians and theologians began to consider Wesley as a serious thinker in the context of an English Enlightenment that was not hostile to Christianity.
    [Show full text]
  • Henry More, Richard Baxter, and Francis Glisson's Trea Tise on the Energetic Na Ture of Substance
    Medical History, 1987, 31: 15-40. MEDICINE AND PNEUMATOLOGY: HENRY MORE, RICHARD BAXTER, AND FRANCIS GLISSON'S TREA TISE ON THE ENERGETIC NA TURE OF SUBSTANCE by JOHN HENRY* The nature of the soul and its relationship to the body has always proved problematical for Christian philosophy. The source ofthe difficulty can be traced back to the efforts of the early Fathers to reconcile the essentially pagan concept of an immaterial and immortal soul with apostolic teachings about the after-life in which all the emphasis is placed upon the resurrection of the body. The tensions between these two traditions inevitably became strained during the sixteenth century when Protestant reformers insisted on a closer adherence to Scripture. Furthermore, even when leaving the problems of Scriptural hermeneutics aside, the dualistic approach to the question, in which soul (or spirit) and body are held to be categorically different in essence, had to overcome a number of intractable philosophical problems. So, it was not simply coincidence that when the new mechanical philosophy began to be formulated in a systematic way in the seventeenth century, it was couched in vigorously dualistic terms. In fact, three of the earliest fully elaborated systems of mechanical philosophy, those of Descartes, Digby, and Charleton, were explicitly intended to provide a philosophical prop for dualist theology.' Moreover, it was because of its usefulness in promoting dualism that Cartesianism was first popularized in England not by a natural philosopher but by the Cambridge Platonist and theologian, Henry More.2 *John Henry, MPhil, PhD, Wellcome Institute for the History ofMedicine, 183 Euston Road, London NWI 2BP.
    [Show full text]
  • An Investigation Into the Version That Shaped European Scholarship on the Arabic Bible
    Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 18 (2021): 237-259 Vevian Zaki Cataloger of Arabic Manuscripts Hill Museum and Manuscript Library Visiting Researcher Faculty of History University of Oxford The “Egyptian Vulgate” in Europe: An Investigation into the Version that Shaped European Scholarship on the Arabic Bible Introduction In the years from 1818 to 1821, August Scholz (1792–1852), a Catholic orientalist and biblical scholar, made many journeys to libraries across Europe seeking New Testament (NT) manuscripts. He wrote an account of his travels in his book Biblisch-kritische Reise, and in this book, Scholz wrote about all the NT manuscripts he encountered in each library he visited, whether they were in Greek, Latin, Syriac, or Arabic.1 What attracts the attention when it comes to the Arabic NT manuscripts is that he always compared their texts to the text of the printed edition of Erpenius.2 This edition of the Arabic NT was prepared in 1616 by Thomas Erpenius (1584-1624), the professor of Arabic studies at Leiden University—that is, two centuries before the time of Scholz. It was the first full Arabic NT to be printed in Europe, and its text was taken from Near Eastern manuscripts that will be discussed below. Those manuscripts which received particular attention from Scholz were those, such as MS Vatican, BAV, Ar. 13, whose text was rather different from that of Erpenius’s edition.3 1 Johann Martin Augustin Scholz, Biblisch-Kritische Reise in Frankreich, der Schweiz, Italien, Palästina und im Archipel in den Jahren 1818, 1819, 1820, 1821 (Leipzig: Fleischer, 1823). 2 Thomas Erpenius, ed.
    [Show full text]
  • Teachers' Conceptions About the Genetic Determinism of Human
    Teachers’ Conceptions About the Genetic Determinism of Human Behaviour: A Survey in 23 Countries Jérémy Castéra, Pierre Clément To cite this version: Jérémy Castéra, Pierre Clément. Teachers’ Conceptions About the Genetic Determinism of Human Be- haviour: A Survey in 23 Countries. Science & Education, 2014, 23 (2), pp.417 - 443. 10.1007/s11191- 012-9494-0. hal-01024280 HAL Id: hal-01024280 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01024280 Submitted on 21 Jul 2014 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Castéra J. & Clément P., 2014 - Teachers’ conceptions about genetic determinism of human behaviour: a survey in 23 Countries. Science & Education, 23 (2), 417-443. (2012 DOI 10.1007/s11191-012-9494-0) Teachers’ Conceptions about the Genetic Determinism of Human Behaviour: A Survey in 23 Countries (Preprint, before corrections) Main topic: Genetic determinism/Genetics education JÉRÉMY CASTÉRA*, ** & PIERRE CLÉMENT** * Science Education Centre, University of Tartu, Estonia. E-mail: [email protected] ** S2HEP, Université Lyon 1, France. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Abstract: This work analyses the answers to a questionnaire from 8,285 in-service and pre-service teachers from 23 countries, elaborated by the Biohead-Citizen research project, to investigate teachers’ conceptions related to the genetic determinism of human behaviour.
    [Show full text]
  • The Historic Episcopate
    THE HISTORIC EPISCOPATE By ROBERT ELLIS THOMPSON, M.A., S.T. D., LL.D. of THE PRESBYTERY of PHILADELPHIA PHILADELPHIA tEfce Wtstminmx pre** 1910 "3^70 Copyright, 1910, by The Trustees of The Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work Published May, 1910 <§;G!.A265282 IN ACCORDANCE WITH ACADEMIC USAGE THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE PRESIDENT, FACULTY AND TRUSTEES OF MUHLENBERG COLLEGE IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF HONORS CONFERRED PREFACE The subject of this book has engaged its author's attention at intervals for nearly half a century. The present time seems propitious for publishing it, in the hope of an irenic rather than a polemic effect. Our Lord seems to be pressing on the minds of his people the duty of reconciliation with each other as brethren, and to be bringing about a harmony of feeling and of action, which is beyond our hopes. He is beating down high pretensions and sectarian prejudices, which have stood in the way of Christian reunion. It is in the belief that the claims made for what is called "the Historic Episcopate" have been, as Dr. Liddon admits, a chief obstacle to Christian unity, that I have undertaken to present the results of a long study of its history, in the hope that this will promote, not dissension, but harmony. If in any place I have spoken in what seems a polemic tone, let this be set down to the stress of discussion, and not to any lack of charity or respect for what was for centuries the church of my fathers, as it still is that of most of my kindred.
    [Show full text]