Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750Arguably the most decisive shift in the history of ideas in modern times was the complete demolition during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries - in the wake of the Scientific Revolution - of traditional structures of authority, scientific thought, and belief by the new philosophy and the philosophes, culminating in Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau. In this revolutionary process which effectively overthrew all justicfication for monarchy, aristocracy, and ecclesiastical power, as well as man's dominance over woman, theological dominance of education, and slavery, substituting the modern principles of equality, democracy, and universality, the Radical Enlightenment played a crucially important part. Despite the present day interest in the revolutions of the late eighteenth century, the origins and rise of the Radical Enlightenment have been astonishingly little studied doubtless largely because of its very wide international sweep and the obvious difficulty of fitting in into the restrictive conventions of 'national history' which until recently tended to dominate all historiography. The greatest obstacle to the Radical Enlightenment finding its proper place in modern historical writing is simply that it was not French, British, German, Italian, Jewish or Dutch, but all of these at the same time. In this novel interpretation of the Radical Enlightenment down to La Mettie and Diderot, two of its key exponents, particular stress is placed on the pivotal role of Spinoza and the widespread underground international philosophical movement known before 1750 as Spinozism. |
Contents
The Rise of Philosophical Radicalism | 157 |
Europe and the New Intellectual Controversies 16801720 | 329 |
The Intellectual CounterOffensive | 445 |
The Clandestine Progress of the Radical Enlightenment 16801750 | 563 |
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Common terms and phrases
Acta Amsterdam argument atheists authority Balthasar Bekker Bayle’s Bekker believe Bible Bibliothèque Boulainvilliers Boyle Bredenburg Buddeus Cartesianism Catholic censorship century Christ Christian Church claimed clandestine Clerc consistory culture d’Argens Dale deism deists demons denied Descartes Diderot divine doctrine Doria Dutch Dutch Republic Early Enlightenment ecclesiastical Edelmann edition Encyclopédie Enden English Europe European Fontenelle France French German Giannone God’s Hague Hobbes Holland Huygens Ibid ideas insists intellectual Italy Johannes Klever Koerbagh later Latin laws Leenhof Leibniz Leiden Lenglet Dufresnoy Letters Locke Malebranche manuscript Marsais Mettrie mind miracles modern monarchy morality nature Netherlands Newton Newtonianism notion Overijssel Paris philosophical Pierre Bayle political published Radical Enlightenment reason Reformed religion revealed Saint-Hyacinthe Schröder Scripture society Socinian Spinoza Spinozist spirits Synod teaching theologians theology thinker Thomasius thought tion Toland Tractatus Theologico-Politicus tradition Traité truth Tschirnhaus universal Utrecht Van Dale Vernière Vico Voltaire Wachter Wittichius Wolff Wolffian writings Wyermars Zwolle