Religion, science and moral philosophy in the Huguenot Enlightenment door Annelie Große

 

Religion, science and moral philosophy in the Huguenot Enlightenment

Jean Henri Samuel Formey and the Berlin Academy

Published on13 February 2024352 pagesOxford University Studies in the EnlightenmentCultural StudiesEighteenth-Century StudiesVoltaire FoundationISBN:9781837644032 (Paperback) |eISBN:9781837643981 (PDF) |eISBN:9781835533321 (ePub)

• Annelie Große
  

Religion, Science and Moral Philosophy in the Huguenot Enlightenment makes two significant contributions to existing scholarship on the Enlightenment. Firstly, as an author, journalist, translator, and inexhaustible letter writer, the Huguenot pastor and secretary of the Berlin Academy of Science, Samuel Formey, was involved in most of the philosophical debates in the European Republic of Letters during the second half of the eighteenth century. This is the first monograph dedicated solely to Formey’s multifaceted work. Secondly, the book recasts the concept of Religious Enlightenment by considering Formey as a pastor-philosopher whose concept of philosophy included revealed religion instead of perpetuating the image of him as an ‘enemy of Enlightenment’ who opposed the philosophy of his time by referring to religion.

More precisely, the book explores the notion of the compatibility between reason and faith in Formey’s thought on the existence of God, the freedom of will, divine providence and other questions relating to religion and metaphysics. It shows how Formey altered his portrayal of the relation between reason and faith depending on the genre and immediate context of his writings. The broader contextualisation of Formey’s arguments in German rationalist philosophy and Calvinist theology unveils not only the overlaps between Wolffianism and eighteenth-century Calvinism but also gives an impression of the diversity of the thought of Huguenot pastors and philosophers during the Enlightenment.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Introduction

Reason and faith in the Enlightenment

The Huguenots and the Enlightenment

Religious Enlightenment

Method and structure of the book

Philosophy as a universal science of reason

The epistemological foundations of Christian philosophy

The Christian philosopher in the French debate about the ‘true’ philosopher

Early Huguenot socialisation

Acquaintance with Wolffianism

Formey’s transition from pastor to professor of philosophy

Philosophical preaching between Calvinist homiletic reform and Wolffianism

Formey’s transformation of philosophical sermons into moral philosophical essays

Secularisation of morality

Rationalism against scepticism: Formey’s dictionary entry for ‘God’

Metaphysics against physico-theology: Formey’s revision of the teleological proof of God

Formey and Maupertuis on metaphysics

Newtonians against Wolffians: Perception of the debate by two groups of contemporaries

Popularising Wolff’s philosophy: Formey’s Belle wolfienne

Formey’s multi-vocal criticism of pre-established harmony and the nexus rerum

The origins of Formey’s criticism

An empirical science of the soul

Free will between absolute necessity and liberty of indifference

The free will debate at the Berlin Academy

The Berlin Academy’s 1751 prize essay competition on the theme of providence

The ‘real’ theory of fortune: Formey and the winning essay

The debate between Formey and Boullier about Leibnizian optimism

Formey on Rousseau’s Discours sur les sciences et les arts

Formey’s scientific moral philosophy

Divine and natural law in Formey’s moral philosophy

Conclusion – Religious Enlightenment between Calvinism and Wolffianism

Bibliography

Archival material

Primary sources

Specialized dictionaries and encyclopedias, 1650-1800 door Jeff Loveland Stéphane Schmitt

 

Specialized dictionaries and encyclopedias, 1650-1800

a tribute to Frank Kafker

Published on12 March 2024488 pagesOxford University Studies in the EnlightenmentCultural StudiesEighteenth-Century StudiesVoltaire FoundationISBN:9781837641468 (Paperback) |eISBN:9781837641376 (PDF) |eISBN:9781835533093 (ePub)

• Jeff Loveland
• Stéphane Schmitt

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the number of specialized dictionaries and encyclopedias grew from a trickle to a flood, while the number of disciplines they were devoted to grew from a handful to dozens, representing many varieties of knowledge. Specialized dictionaries – as most were called, whether lexical or encyclopedic – were far more numerous than general encyclopedias. Yet despite their importance – as sources of knowledge, for example, and as definers of disciplines – they have not been much studied. Drawing on Frank Kafker’s methods for studying the period’s general encyclopedias, as pioneered in Notable Encyclopedias of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1981), this volume examines specialized dictionaries as commercial products, collections of content, and cultural artifacts. Specifically, it complements a wide-ranging, analytical introduction sketching out the characteristics of specialized dictionaries in general with a series of individually authored but standardized case studies. The latter deal with dictionaries on a variety of disciplines, from the Bible to mining, and in five European languages. The volume concludes with an essay on Frank Kafker’s influence on historiography.

Free thinking SimonMcCarthy-Jones

 

We face radical new threats to our freedom of thought – here’s how to retain control

For humanity to survive there must always be people performing the minute-to-minute miracle of thought.

'Excellent and beyond timely.' A. C. Grayling

Scientific advances and new technologies are letting others manipulate our minds more easily than ever before. Now, those tasked with protecting our minds are finally preparing to fight back. As we speak, the United Nations is seeking to pin down a concrete right to free thought and enshrine it in international law alongside life, education and protest.

But what is thought? And what makes it free? And how can it best be protected? Freethinking explores what an effective right to freedom of thought would look like, and asks how we might build a culture of free thought, and whether that’s even what we want.

In an uncertain and rapidly evolving world, Freethinking shows that there are solutions to the forces buffeting our minds.

• Publisher: Oneworld Publications (January 9, 2024)
• Length: 416 pages
• ISBN13: 9780861544578

26.95 €

Simon McCarthy-Jones

Simon McCarthy-Jones is an Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology at Trinity College Dublin. An internationally recognised expert on the experience of hallucinations, he also writes on and researches a range of psychological phenomena and is the author of Spite. He has written extensively for the popular press, with articles published in the New Statesman, New Scientist, Newsweek, the Huffington Post, the Daily Mail, the Independent and the Irish Times. His articles on ‘The Conversation’ website have received over a million views to date. His website is: www.simonmccarthyjones.com.

Spelen met waarden, betalen met gedachten Erasmus, Spinoza en dat wat ons bindt - Ronald van Raak

Paperback

Februari 2024 | ISBN 9789024464456 | 01.01 | 144 blz.

Voor 21:00 uur besteld, morgen in huis

€ 22,90

 

In dit prikkelende essay over publieke waarden gaat Ronald van Raak te rade bij de twee grootste filosofen uit de Nederlandse geschiedenis.

Erasmus en Spinoza zijn filosofen die in ons land lang werden gehaat, om vervolgens te worden vereerd. Denkers die in weinig opzichten met elkaar te vergelijken zijn, maar toch beiden symbolen werden van vrijheid en tolerantie. Erasmus hield tijdgenoten een morele spiegel voor in de Lof der Zotheid (1511). Spinoza beschreef in zijn Ethica (1677) een uitdagende morele filosofie.

 

In Spelen met waarden, betalen met gedachten onderzoekt Ronald van Raak hoe het denken van Erasmus en Spinoza tot stand kwam en welke waarden eraan ten grondslag lagen. Hij beschrijft hoe hun denkbeelden door de tijd heen werden gebruikt en wat hun filosofie kan betekenen in het huidige debat over de vraag wat ons nog met elkaar verbindt.

 

Fragment

‘Volgens Erasmus kunnen gedeelde waarden niet van buitenaf worden opgelegd, maar moeten deze uit de mensen zélf komen. Hij wierp de vraag op hoe de maatschappij burgers in staat kon stellen om zichzelf moreel te ontwikkelen, om op deze manier inzicht te krijgen in de verplichtingen die we hebben tegenover elkaar. Voor Erasmus staat of valt een vrije samenleving met de vrijheid die we aan anderen gunnen.’ 

 

Over de auteur

Ronald van Raak is hoogleraar Erasmiaanse waarden aan de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR) en is als raadslid verbonden aan de Raad voor het Openbaar Bestuur (ROB).

Ecossisme Points de Vue IniatiqueVI 188

 

PVI 188

8.00 €

Ecossisme

ÉDITORIAL                                                                                                                              

Frédéric-Pierre Isoz

ÉCOSSISME

L’Écossisme est-il d’origine française ?                                                                                  

Jean-Bernard Lévy

Avec sa précision d’historien rigoureux, sa verve de maçon et d’auteur reconnu, Jean-Bernard Lévy nous emmène dans le dédale touffu des origines de l’Écossisme…

Origines : entre mythes et histoire                                                                                        

Jean-Pierre Louvet

Le mystère des origines est une question d’autant plus lancinante qu’elle n’est jamais résolue. C’est pourquoi les mythes, les histoires, mais aussi l’art et la poésie ont une parole égale…

Ordo ab Chao                                                                                                                         

Stéphane Couve

Dans un texte très personnel unissant sous une même plume les mythes, concepts et interprétations qui relient les hommes s'interrogeant sur les liens entre ordre et chaos, l'auteur nous invite à saisir le sens de la devise du Rite…

Les rituels des trois premiers degrés du Rite Écossais Ancien et Accepté                            

Louis Trébuchet

Quarante-cinq jours qui firent l'Histoire du Rite Écossais Ancien et Accepté... C'est du 17 octobre au 5 décembre 1804 que se voient unifiés les trois premiers degrés du Rite par la Grande Loge Générale Écossaise…

ENTRETIEN

Claude Collin, Souverain Grand Commandeur du Suprême Conseil de France (2009-2018)  

INVITÉ

François Gresset, premier adjoint au maire d’Aubigny-sur-Nère, chargé du tourisme               

                                                                                                

Mini-dictionnaire amoureux de l'Écossisme                                                                                

Olivier Balaine

Partiel, certainement partial, puisqu’issu d’un amoureux toujours réchauffé et pas encore éconduit, ce mini-dictionnaire amoureux de l’Écossisme se veut comme un clin d’œil à ces mots familiers que nous croisons si sérieusement…

« Deus meumque jus »                                                                                                                

Jean-Jacques Gabut    

La devise Deus meumque jus renvoie l'initié à sa double nature divine et humaine. Trouvant son origine dans la tradition chevaleresque et impériale, comme le montre l'auteur, cette devise nous emmène à vivre notre spiritualité en actes…

Il était une fois l’Auld Alliance                                                                                                    

Serge Ajzenfisz

Plus vieux traité du monde pour reprendre les mots légendaires du général de Gaulle, s'il n'est plus suivi d'effet depuis longtemps, ce pacte reste au cœur de nos mémoires et unit nos deux peuples à jamais…

L’Esprit du Rite Écossais Rectifié                                                                                                 

Jean-Marc Pétillot

Témoignage d'une tradition initiatique originale et singulière, l’esprit du Rite Écossais Rectifié est ici présenté par Jean-Marc Pétillot, passé Grand Maître de la Grande Loge Traditionnelle et Symbolique Opéra…

BIBLIOGRAPHIE                                                                                                                          

HISTOIRE

De la « Circulaire aux Deux Hémisphères » à la Déclaration des principes du Convent de Lausanne, un même message spiritualiste                                                                                 

Jean-Pierre Thomas

Un texte fondateur : le Manifeste du Convent de Lausanne                                                        

L’AIR DU TEMPS                                                                                                                           

Voyage en Écossisme

Robert de Rosa

RECENSIONS                                                                                                                                

ARRÊT SUR IMAGES                                                                                                                     

Sceau de la Grande Loge des Maîtres de l’Orient de France

Luc de Champris

CHAMP DU POÈTE                                                                                                                        

La route

Jean-François Pluviaud

Religion, science and moral philosophy in the Huguenot Enlightenment - Annelie Große

 

Religion, science and moral philosophy in the Huguenot Enlightenment

Jean Henri Samuel Formey and the Berlin Academy

Published on13 February 2024352 pagesVoltaire FoundationISBN:9781837644032 (Paperback) |eISBN:9781837643981 (PDF) |eISBN:9781835533321 (ePub)

• Annelie Große

Religion, Science and Moral Philosophy in the Huguenot Enlightenment makes two significant contributions to existing scholarship on the Enlightenment. Firstly, as an author, journalist, translator, and inexhaustible letter writer, the Huguenot pastor and secretary of the Berlin Academy of Science, Samuel Formey, was involved in most of the philosophical debates in the European Republic of Letters during the second half of the eighteenth century. This is the first monograph dedicated solely to Formey’s multifaceted work. Secondly, the book recasts the concept of Religious Enlightenment by considering Formey as a pastor-philosopher whose concept of philosophy included revealed religion instead of perpetuating the image of him as an ‘enemy of Enlightenment’ who opposed the philosophy of his time by referring to religion.

More precisely, the book explores the notion of the compatibility between reason and faith in Formey’s thought on the existence of God, the freedom of will, divine providence and other questions relating to religion and metaphysics. It shows how Formey altered his portrayal of the relation between reason and faith depending on the genre and immediate context of his writings. The broader contextualisation of Formey’s arguments in German rationalist philosophy and Calvinist theology unveils not only the overlaps between Wolffianism and eighteenth-century Calvinism but also gives an impression of the diversity of the thought of Huguenot pastors and philosophers during the Enlightenment.

able of Contents

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Introduction

Reason and faith in the Enlightenment

The Huguenots and the Enlightenment

Religious Enlightenment

Method and structure of the book

Philosophy as a universal science of reason

The epistemological foundations of Christian philosophy

The Christian philosopher in the French debate about the ‘true’ philosopher

Early Huguenot socialisation

Acquaintance with Wolffianism

Formey’s transition from pastor to professor of philosophy

Philosophical preaching between Calvinist homiletic reform and Wolffianism

Formey’s transformation of philosophical sermons into moral philosophical essays

Secularisation of morality

Rationalism against scepticism: Formey’s dictionary entry for ‘God’

Metaphysics against physico-theology: Formey’s revision of the teleological proof of God

Formey and Maupertuis on metaphysics

Newtonians against Wolffians: Perception of the debate by two groups of contemporaries

Popularising Wolff’s philosophy: Formey’s Belle wolfienne

Formey’s multi-vocal criticism of pre-established harmony and the nexus rerum

The origins of Formey’s criticism

An empirical science of the soul

Free will between absolute necessity and liberty of indifference

The free will debate at the Berlin Academy

The Berlin Academy’s 1751 prize essay competition on the theme of providence

The ‘real’ theory of fortune: Formey and the winning essay

The debate between Formey and Boullier about Leibnizian optimism

Formey on Rousseau’s Discours sur les sciences et les arts

Formey’s scientific moral philosophy

Divine and natural law in Formey’s moral philosophy

Conclusion – Religious Enlightenment between Calvinism and Wolffianism

Bibliography

Archival material

Primary sources

Secondary sources

German and European Cultural Histories, 1760 - 1830 ystal Hall Birgit Tautz

 

German and European Cultural Histories, 1760 - 1830

Between Network and Narrative

Published on08 January 2024    368 pagesVoltaire FoundationISBN:9781837644728 (Paperback) |eISBN:9781837644995 (PDF)

• Crystal Hall 
• Birgit Tautz

This volume plays on the double meaning of network in German and European Studies: configurations of people, objects, and texts as well as network analysis, the dominant Digital Humanities (DH) method featured in the book. Contributions from art history, history of the book, history, literary studies, and musicology contemplate the strengths and weakness of treating the period 1789-1810 as either continuous with or a departure from the centuries before and after by examining different facets of the longer period 1760-1830. While many chapters investigate German material, nearly all expand into other European cultures and cover important regions, protagonists, objects and constellations of bi-and multilingual life. They intersect Italian, French, and English networks and reach across the Atlantic into New England. The period’s bookends indicate a threshold or terminus for traditions, institutions, and national identities in Europe: marking the French Revolution (and its effects across the continent culminating on the Wars again Napoleon) and at times reactionary responses with delineation of national, regional, or group identities, respectively, and perhaps most pronounced in the aftermath of the Congress of Vienna (1814-15). Overall, the collection of eleven chapters, introduction, and an epilogue explores European cultural histories at the turn of the nineteenth century in a nonlinear manner, that is, by accumulating critical perspectives on people, objects, and texts that test the boundaries of narratives of transmission, organization, and cohesion that often mark scholarly e

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables

Preface and acknowledgements

Editors’ Note

Crystal Hall and Birgit Tautz, Social capital, material cultures, reading: German and European cultural histories between network and narrative around 1800

I. Social Capital

Melanie Conroy, French salons as networks, before and after 1800

Mary Helen Dupree, Plappermann’s Wanderjahre: Traveling declamators and knowledge circulation around 1800

Joachim Homann, Luftschiff der Phantasie: Johann Christian Reinhart, Friedrich Schiller, and artistic networks circa 1800

II. Material Cultures

Sean Franzel, Serial Inventories

Renata Schellenberg, Cultivating contacts: collectors, critics, and the public in eighteenth-century German-speaking Europe

Crystal Hall, An eighteenth-century New England library in its European, material context

III. Reading

Nacim Ghanbari, First Letters

Karin Baumgartner, Mapping the nation: foreign travel in Germany 1738–1839

Peter Höyng, A call for a concert of eavesdroppers: Beethoven’s conversation notebooks

IV. Expansive Networks

Matt Erlin and Melanie Walsh, Social and conceptual networks in eighteenth-century German periodical literature

Birgit Tautz, K/Cosmopolit* in Enlightenment journals: of networks and translation

Crystal Hall and Birgit Tautz, Epilog: new networks?

Contributors

Bibliography

Index

valuations of this period in European history.