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Showing papers on "Enlightenment published in 1978"


Book
01 Jan 1978
TL;DR: In this paper, Jacob Bronowski, a mathematician and scientist, presents a succinct introduction to the state of modern thinking about the role of science in man's intellectual and moral life.
Abstract: "A gem of enlightenment. . . . One rejoices in Bronowski's dedication to the identity of acts of creativity and of imagination, whether in Blake or Yeats or Einstein or Heisenberg."-Kirkus Reviews "A delightful look at the inquiring mind."-Library Journal In this eloquent volume Jacob Bronowski, mathematician and scientist, presents a succinct introduction to the state of modern thinking about the role of science in man's intellectual and moral life. Weaving together themes from ethnology, linguistics, philosophy, and physics, he confronts the questions of who we are, what we are, and how we relate to the universe around us.

160 citations


Book
01 Jun 1978
TL;DR: Dugald Stewart (1753-1810) was one of the first British philosophers to react to the new critical philosophy in Germany and much of his own thought was conducted in dialogue with the latest French ideas.
Abstract: Dugald Stewart (1753-1810) was professor of mathematics (1775-1785), then of moral philosophy (1785-1810) at the University of Edinburgh. Stewart was one of the great cultural intermediaries. The son of the Scottish Enlightenment, he taught many of the leading intellects of the early 19th century - Sir Walter Scott, James Mill, Sir James MacKintosh, the Edinburgh Reviewers and many foreign luminaries, such as Benjamin Constant. Reared on the mental philosophy of Thomas Reid, his eclectic mind accepted important elements of Adam Smith's historical outlook, and the combination allowed Stewart to have an important influence on methodology, ranging from the science of the mind to the study of language and political economy. Stewart's theory of the mind was part of perhaps the subtlest philosophical answer to both the French Revolution and its British critics. Stewart was among the first British philosophers to react to the new critical philosophy in Germany and much of his own thought was conducted in dialogue with the latest French ideas. The works of Stewart came to be seen as a "Scottish School" and it was enormously influential both in France and in America for much of the 19th century. Sir William Hamilton's edition of Stewart's collected works is still the standard one and useful for studying both Stewart and the epoch of late Enlightenment, revolution and romanticism.

112 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The key indigenous concept of development among the Yoruba of Ilesha, qlaju ('enlightenment'), is specified and some typical contemporary referents illustrated in this paper.
Abstract: The key indigenous concept of development among the Yoruba of Ilesha, qlaju ('enlightenment'), is specified and some typical contemporary referents illustrated. It is shown to entail a particular system of metaphors and to be related to some traditional ideas about the provenance of power, and the relation of knowledge and power. Qlaju—variously associated with education, the world religions, external trade and travel—has had relevance both to individuals and communities, and is traced through several historical phases from the late nineteenth century to today. It became progressively more linked with Western education and underlay the major place of education in Nigerian social policy since 1945. The traditional esotericism of Yoruba knowledge, hoarded by the powerful as a key resource, gave way to a more open conception in the early twentieth century, linked with conversionary religions. Latterly, education being again commended because it confers power in a zero‐sum situation, a new scarcity is created...

75 citations



Book
01 Jan 1978
TL;DR: The Dialectic of Enlightenment reveals the paradox of the late eighteenth-century concept of reason: instead of bringing emancipation as it promised, it turned out to be a new form of domination as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The Dialectic of Enlightenment reveals the paradox of the late eighteenth-century concept of reason: instead of bringing emancipation as it promised, it turned out to be a new form of domination. Adorno, however, reveals more persistently the paradoxes of new philosophical and theoretical movements of the twentieth century which promise emancipation, ‘the dialectic of humanism’. Adorno and many other German writers of the inter-war period were attracted to an anti-humanist stance.1 They rejected the humanist legacy of historicism, philosophical anthropology, ‘realism’ in art, and epistemology, for these were seen as bankrupt, incapable of providing any analysis of a much-changed historical reality. Adorno held that these varieties of ‘anti-humanism’ were enslaving rather than liberating because they recreated the very evils which they sought to define and eschew. He thus recognised a ‘dialectic of humanism’ and showed how the ‘new’ philosophy, sociology, and literary theory relapsed into the assumptions which they deplored. He attributed this partly to the resurrection of the old ambition of philosophy to establish indubitable grounds for its own endeavour, and partly to the unrealistic attempt to make no concessions at all to the power of the old illusions and their social basis.

53 citations


Book
01 Jan 1978
TL;DR: Pye's introductory guide investigates the meaning and context of skilful means in Mayahana Buddhist teachings, whilst tracing its early origins in ancient Japanese and Theravada thought.
Abstract: 'Skilful Means' is the key principle of Mahayana, one of the great Buddhist traditions. First described in the Lotus Sutra, it originates in myths of the Buddha's compassionate plans for raising life from the ceaseless round of birth and death. His strategies or interventions are 'skilful means' - morally wholesome tricks devised for the purpose of enabling nirvana or enlightenment. Michael Pye's clear and engaging introductory guide investigates the meaning and context of skilful means in Mayahana Buddhist teachings, whilst tracing its early origins in ancient Japanese and Theravada thought. First published in 1978, and still the best explanation of the concept, it illuminates a core working philosophy essential for any complete understanding of Buddhism.

49 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The origins of the American Revolution are not simple and Lockean, as once believed, but complex and atavistic growing out of the rich English intellectual traditions of the Dissenters, radical Whigs, Classical Republicans, Commonwealthmen, country party, or more simply, the Opposition as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: HE reigning ideas of the American Revolution are now being characterized as premodern. This judgment comes at the end of a decade of scholarly probing into the ideological origins of the colonial resistance movement. The origins that Neo-Whig historians Bernard Bailyn, Richard Buel, Jack Greene, and Gordon Wood have discovered are not simple and Lockean, as once believed, but complex and atavistic growing out of the rich English intellectual traditions of the Dissenters, radical Whigs, Classical Republicans, Commonwealthmen, Country party, or more simply, the Opposition.1 Dramatically reorienting the scholarship on the Revolution, Bailyn has reconstructed the interpretive scheme which dominated the colonists' minds, triggered their emotions, and pushed them into resistance.2 The revolutionary force of this scheme lay, in Wood's words, with "its obsession with corruption and disorder, its hostile and conspiratorial outlook, and its millennial vision of a regenerated society."' These, of course, are the qualities that have prompted J. G. A. Pocock to question whether the American Revolution ought not to be considered as "the last great act of the Renaissance" rather than "'the first political act of revolutionary enlightenment. "'4 Originally undertaken as a corrective to the shallow economic determinism of Progressive historiography, the revisionary work of the Neo-Whigs has ended up sapping the foundation of their alma mater, the

30 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Rousseau as mentioned in this paper argues that the practice of philosophy isolates men from one another, relaxing all the links of esteem and benevolence that attach men to society, ensuring that each practitioner concentrates in his own person all the interest that virtuous men share with their fellows, so that his self-love augments in the same proportion as his indifference to the remainder of the universe.
Abstract: I N THE PREFACE to Narcisse, Rousseau redoubles the indictment against science and the arts for corrupting modern man put forth in his first Discourse and sketches some central themes for his second, On the Origins of Inequality. His major quarrel is with \"the taste for letters and philosophy.\" In addition to the familiar charge that such pursuits \"soften and enfeeble the body and the soul,\" Rousseau contends that philosophy makes virtue impossible, \"snuffing out the love of our first duties and of true glory.\" The practice of philosophy isolates men from one another, \"relaxing all the links of esteem and benevolence that attach men to society,\" ensuring that each practitioner \"concentrates in his own person all the interest that virtuous men share with their fellows,\" so that \"his self-love augments in the same proportion as his indifference to the remainder of the universe.\" Family and patrie are nothing to him; \"he is neither kinsman, nor citizen, nor man: he is a philosopher.\"' These contentions disclose an aspect of the complex paradox of individuality and community in Rousseau's social thought quite different from the solitary walker constructing social systems from the lovely stuff of reveries. Here we have the notion that human ties of esteem, benevolence, and duty are in some sense social facts, threatened

19 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Dialogues concerning Natural Religion (DRE) as discussed by the authors is regarded as the most honest and the most penetrating thinker of the latter group, and Mossner is not alone in believing that the DRE is his philosophical testament.
Abstract: What darkness was the ‘Enlightenment’ supposed to have removed? The answer is irrational forms of religion. Most of the ‘enlightened’ took the view that revealed religion was irrational and that natural religion could be rational; but some were sceptical about natural religion too. Hume was the most honest and the most penetrating thinker of the latter group. His biographer, Professor E. C. Mossner, is not alone in believing that the Dialogues concerning Natural Religion is ‘his philosophical testament’.

15 citations






Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The relationship between John Locke and Isaac Newton, co-founder of, in the apt phrase of one recent writer, "the Moderate Enlightenment" of the eighteenth century, has many dimensions as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The relationship between John Locke and Isaac Newton, his co-founder of, in the apt phrase of one recent writer, ‘the Moderate Enlightenment’ of the eighteenth century, has many dimensions. There is their friendship, which began only after each had written his major work, and which had its stormy interlude. There is the difficult question of their mutual impact. In what ways did each draw intellectually on the other? That there was some debt of each to the other is almost certain, but its exact extent is problematic. Questions may be asked over a whole range of intellectual issues, but not always answered. Thus their theology, which was in many respects close, and which forms the bulk of their surviving correspondence, may yet reveal mutual influence. There is the question of their political views, where both were firmly Whig. But it is upon their philosophy, and certain aspects of their philosophy in particular, that this paper will concentrate. My main theme is the nature of their empiricism, and my main contention is that between them they produced a powerful and comprehensive philosophy.

Journal ArticleDOI
Joseph Agassi1
TL;DR: In a later age, a joke was invented about Euler's poking fun at Diderot's ignorance of mathematics as mentioned in this paper, which has provoked historians of ideas to show that Dideot was a mathematician; and everyone who knows D'Alembert's preface to the Encyclopedia knows that he was a rounded man too.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Voltaire's elegant conceit in behalf of Enlightenment and against Rousseau's hardy defense of ignorance may reveal less a contradiction than a problem as discussed by the authors. But the depth of the problem is obscured by the very brilliance of the attack.
Abstract: brilliance of his attack on the Enlightenment. “Never,” said Voltaire, “has so much intelligence been employed in order to render us stupid.”’ Voltaire’s elegant conceit in behalf of Enlightenment and against Rousseau’s hardy defense of ignorance may reveal less a contradiction than a problem. But the depth of the problem is obscured by the very brilliance of the attack. Noticing this obstacle was Emmanuel Kant, who admired Rousseau’s moral teaching while sharing Voltaire’s partisanship of Enlightenment. “I have read Rousseau,” he said, “until the beauty of his expression no longer disturbs me. Only then can I view him rationally.”Z However, both his detractor and his admirer were more concerned to “liberate man from his self-imposed tutelage” in order to introduce light into the City, than to pause and wonder for long a t the artful manner in which Rousseau mediated the lights at his disposal.’

Journal ArticleDOI
Abstract: The Enlightenment inspired among the Spanish fundamental revisions in rhetorical theory. Restatements of classical dogma, prevalent in the early eighteenth century, gradually diminished and were replaced by a stylistic, belletristic, and ultimately modern conception of rhetoric.



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Histoire Raisonnee as mentioned in this paper was a transitional genre of historical writing which modulated between Renaissance and Enlightenment historiography, which was defined by Franc;ois Eudes de Mezeray (1610-1683).
Abstract: During the seventeenth century historians in France developed new conceptions about history and applied new methodologies of historical writing. Not yet content to leave behind the Renaissance view that history was an art, and not yet comfortable with the Enlightenment claim that history was a science, these seventeenth-century writers created a transitional genre of historical writing. Called by contemporaries the histoire raisonnee,e it was a fluid genre which absorbed some elements of the Renaissance style, transformed others to accord with seventeenth-century values and tastes, and cast away those unnecessary "embellishments" which detracted from its goals. As a result of its new orientation, the histoire raisonnee also laid the foundations for the broader based, more "critical" history of the Enlightenment in France. Thus the histoire raisonnee was a unique style of historical writing which modulated between Renaissance and Enlightenment historiography. This article will use the works of Franc;ois Eudes de Mezeray (1610-1683) both to illustrate the genre of the histoire raisonnee and to show how the histoire raisonnee evolved from the histoire d'humanisme. The works of Mezeray have been selected for this study for several reasons. Mezeray was a royal historiographer, pensioned during the

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 1978-Thomist
TL;DR: Voegelin's From Enlightenment to Revolution (VoI. fll as discussed by the authors ) is a history of political thought with a focus on the disordered experiences of reality that underlie their speculations.
Abstract: A REVIEW ARTICLE I T HAS BEEN twenty years since the work of Eric Voegelin was last reviewed in these pages (by Anton-Hermann Chroust, commenting at length on the second volume of Order and HistoryVoI. fll [July, 1958] 381-91). Yet the volume now under consideration goes back to the 1940's and early 50's when Voegelin was at work on a history of political thought and had not yet completed the analytical schemes which inform the five volumes of Order and History. Except for two passages\ the studies published in From Enlightenment to Revolution are appearing in print for the first time, at the instance of Professor Hallowell. A long-time student of Voegelin, Ellis Sandoz, has called this work" perhaps the best single introduction to Voegelin's philosophy of politics." 2 Its studies of Voltaire and Bossuet, of Helvetius and Pascal, of Comte and de Maistre, and of Turgot, Bakunin, Marx, and a number of lesser luminaries of modernity focus on the disordered experiences of reality that underlie their speculations. Another Voegelin student, John S. Kirby, has written an excellent summary of these studies: "Voegelin seeks to determine not only what these men thought, but also ... identifies the essential pattern as one of spiritual disintegration. The medieval, Christian pilgrim's progress towards a salvation beyond history is replaced by the intramundane progress of enlightened intellectuals. The spiritual structure of Augustine's historia sacra is discarded for the 'truths' of natural science, and the beatitude of Aristotle's bios theoretikos is replaced by the job of pragmatic action. "At the heart of this development, Voegelin sees an emergent will to power which seeks unqualified control over society in the name of one new gospel or another: the encyclopedistes' enlighten-


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 1978
TL;DR: Trenard as discussed by the authors reviewed different aspects of the Enlightenment in the French Netherlands, particularly in Lille, where Mahomet was first performed and the development of education, the foundation of professional schools and colleges, as well as the extent of alphabetisation among the population.
Abstract: Louis Trenard : The enlightenment in the french low countries. ; A review of different aspects of the Enlightenment in the French Netherlands, particularly in Lille. The activity of the editor C.J. Panckoucke and Lille-based periodicals, the theatre, muscial activity, learned societies and Freemasonry spread the new ideas and created a cultural climate which encouraged Voltaire to stay in Lille, where Mahomet was first performed. This article goes on to consider the development of education, the foundation of professional schools and colleges, as well as the extent of alphabetisation among the population, which indicates the urban nature of the Enlightenment. It is also clear that is was connected with the development of the French language and limited to an elite, often clerical ; it contributed to a weakening of traditional local culture and thus to the uniformisation of French culture.



Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 1978-Horizons
TL;DR: This paper argued that understanding the Buddhist sutras as merely useless or as instruments in the attainment of satori involves an inauthentic Zen attitude toward those sutsras, which is not in accord with the Middle Way of the Buddha and an authentic Zen attitude towards the Buddhist Sutras.
Abstract: What is an authentic Zen attitude toward the Buddhist sutras? Popular misunderstandings of Zen perceive that Zen denies any value to the written word. Grounding itself on a lengthy discussion of the fundamental human problem (dualistic perception) and its resolution (satori) in Zen, this article argues that understanding the Buddhist sutras as merely useless or as instruments in the attainment of satori involves an inauthentic Zen attitude toward those sutras. The Buddhist sutras are, however, a nondualistically dual “Self-Expression of the Buddha-Nature.” This approach is in accord with the Middle Way of the Buddha and an authentic Zen attitude toward the Buddhist sutras.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The idea of race has already reaped a grim harvest in the twentieth century, fulfilling Alexis de Tocqueville's prediction, and, even after the Holocaust, as well as a thousand refutations, its seductive tones are still heard as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: No ideology has cast a more sinister shadow over the modern mind than the implausible doctrine of man known as "racism," or "racialism," and none is more difficult to overcome. The idea of race has already reaped a grim harvest in the twentieth cen tury, fulfilling Alexis de Tocqueville's prediction,1 and, even after the Holocaust, as well as a thousand refutations, its seductive tones are still heard. Jew-hatred, an old passion in Christian Europe, only became "anti-Semitism," properly speaking, i.e., implacable opposition to the so-called Semitic (Jewish) race, when the new racial philosophy had supplied the anti-Jewish ideologues of the last hundred years with a new set of pseudo scientific terms with which to express their dark broodings. One must say "pseudo-scientific," because racism, contrary to racist opinion itself, owes almost nothing to genuine science—the ex cesses of the physical anthropologists of the late nineteenth cen tury were more symptomatic than causative, and Darwinian biology merely lent a scientific veneer to racist ideas—and almost everything to a profound feeling of alienation from the spirit of Western civilization since the triumph of the Enlightenment. The best students of the subject have always emphasized this point.2 Out of this alienation arose strange prophets: Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Arthur de Gobineau, Paul Anton de Lagarde, Houston Stewart Chamberlain—voices of protest whose words finally fell

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 1978
TL;DR: Bots and De Vet as discussed by the authors argued that the United Province of Pennsylvania was the starting point of the Enlightenment in the U.P. and emphasized the continuity of 16th-century Biblical humanism, which inspired 18th century tolerance, on the important mystical current, on defenders of liberalism and the development of philosophy and literature, and the role of learned societies and academies in the diffusion of Enlightened ideas.
Abstract: Hans Bots and Jan De Vet : The united provinces and the enlightenment. The chronological limits of the Enlightenment in the U.P. are not those of England or France. «Enlightened » ideas circulated earlier, due tho the Revolt ; the bourgeois Revolution took place in the 1780s but the old structures of government were not removed until 1795. In addition, the particular charac¬ ter of the Enlightenment here is due to the fact the the optimistic faith in the perfectibility of man and society was accompanied by a belief in Christian revelation. The authors insist on the continuity of 16th-century Biblical humanism which inspired 18th-century tolerance, on the important mystical current, on the defenders of liberalism and the development of philosophy and literature ; on the role of learned societies and academies and the important part played by the U.P. in the diffusion of Enlightened ideas. The authors also emphasize the large extent to which this movement extended to all categories of society and was inspired by their rational Christian faith. The resulting hostility to materialism and free thought gave this Enlightenment its special character which is still to be studied in depth.