Enlightenment

About: Enlightenment is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6845 publications have been published within this topic receiving 116832 citations.

The Principles Of Moral And Political Philosophy

Abstract: A major philosophical mind in his day, William Paley (1743–1805) wrote in a lucid style that made complex ideas more accessible to a wide readership. This work, first published in 1785, was based on the lectures he gave on moral philosophy at Christ's College, Cambridge. Cited in parliamentary debates and remaining on the syllabus at Cambridge into the twentieth century, it stands as one of the most influential texts to emerge from the Enlightenment period in Britain. An orthodox theologian, grounding his utilitarian ethics in strong religious faith, Paley held notably progressive views on issues of toleration and the slave trade. His perspicuity prompted one contemporary to remark that the book 'presents a subject which has always been considered as harsh and difficult, in the most agreeable and intelligible form … we sit down to be informed of our duty, and are surprised to meet with amusement'.

Fits, Trances, & Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James

Abstract: Fits, trances, visions, speaking in tongues, clairvoyance, out-of-body experiences, possession. Believers have long viewed these and similar involuntary experiences as religious--as manifestations of God, the spirits, or the Christ within. Skeptics, on the other hand, have understood them as symptoms of physical disease, mental disorder, group dynamics, or other natural causes. In this sweeping work of religious and psychological history, Ann Taves explores the myriad ways in which believers and detractors interpreted these complex experiences in Anglo-American culture between the mid-eighteenth and early-twentieth centuries.Taves divides the book into three sections. In the first, ranging from 1740 to 1820, she examines the debate over trances, visions, and other involuntary experiences against the politically charged backdrop of Anglo-American evangelicalism, established churches, Enlightenment thought, and a legacy of religious warfare. In the second part, covering 1820 to 1890, she highlights the interplay between popular psychology--particularly the ideas of "animal magnetism" and mesmerism--and movements in popular religion: the disestablishment of churches, the decline of Calvinist orthodoxy, the expansion of Methodism, and the birth of new religious movements. In the third section, Taves traces the emergence of professional psychology between 1890 and 1910 and explores the implications of new ideas about the subconscious mind, hypnosis, hysteria, and dissociation for the understanding of religious experience. Throughout, Taves follows evolving debates about whether fits, trances, and visions are natural (and therefore not religious) or supernatural (and therefore religious). She pays particular attention to a third interpretation, proposed by such "mediators" as William James, according to which these experiences are natural "and" religious. Taves shows that ordinary people as well as educated elites debated the meaning of these experiences and reveals the importance of interactions between popular and elite culture in accounting for how people experienced religion and explained experience.Combining rich detail with clear and rigorous argument, this is a major contribution to our understanding of Protestant revivalism and the historical interplay between religion and psychology.

Social theory of the Scottish Enlightenment

Abstract: The Enlightenment and Scotland society and the critique of individualism science, explanation and history social diversity social history commercial history social values reading the Scottish enlightenment.

How the Cold War Transformed Philosophy of Science: To the Icy Slopes of Logic

Abstract: 1 An introduction to logical empiricism and the Unity of Science Movement in the Cold War 2 Otto Neurath, Rudolf Carnap, Charles Morris and Philipp Frank: political philosophers of science 3 Leftist philosophy of science in America and the reception of logical empiricism in New York City 4 'Doomed in advance to defeat'? John Dewey on reductionism, values and the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science 5 Red philosophy of science: Blumberg, Malisoff, Somerville and early philosophy of science 6 The view from the left: logical empiricism and radical philosophers 7 The view from the far left: logical empiricism and communist philosophers 8 Postwar disillusionment, anti-intellectualism, and the values debate 9 Horace Kallen's attack on the unity of science 10 Creeping totalitarianism, creeping scholasticism: Neurath, Frank, and the trouble with semantics 11 Frank's neurathian crusade: science, enlightenment, and values 12 'A very fertile field for investigation': anticollectivism and anticommunism in popular and academic culture 13 Anticommunism investigations, loyalty oaths, and the wrath of Sidney Hook 14 Competing programs for postwar philosophy of science 15 Freedom celebrated: the professional decline of Philipp Frank and the Unity of Science Movement 16 The marginalization of Charles Morris 17 Values, axioms and the icy slopes of logic 18 Professionalism, power and what might have been

Reconciling the Solitudes: Essays on Canadian Federalism and Nationalism

Abstract: Taylor is one of the world's pre-eminent experts on Hegel and brings to his reflections on nationalism and federalism the fruits of a more universal philosophical discourse rooted in the Enlightenment and before. Its hallmarks are terms such as recognition, self-determination, atomism, and modernity. Notwithstanding his long involvement in philosophical reflections, Taylor has avoided the role of the disengaged intellectual, always remaining close to political action and debate in Canada. To his philosophical discourse, therefore, is added a sensitive knowledge of Quebec society from the vantage point of an English-speaking citizen with profound roots within it. Taylor suggests that it will be necessary to think in terms of deep diversity if Canada is to stay together in the twenty-first century. Eight of the essays, published between 1965 and 1992, are drawn from the Queen's Quarterly, edited scholarly books, a research study for the MacDonald Commission on Canada's Economic and Political Future, and an English translation of his submission to Quebec's Belanger-Campeau Commission. The concluding paper was written specially for this volume.