{"title":"Joining the Radical Enlightenment: Some Thoughts on Intellectual Identity, Precarity and Sociability in the Eighteenth Century","authors":"J.P.T. Geerlings","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82128","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82128","url":null,"abstract":"Historians have for some time asked themselves whether the Radical Enlightenment refers to a cohesive radical wing of the Enlightenment, or whether it merely groups together a number of highly diverse strands of heterodox thought. At the same time, little attention is being given to the ways in which radical thinkers experienced and helped shape the intellectual contexts within which they operated. Although often viewed as isolated individuals, many heterodox, radical, and marginalized thinkers exhibited a keen concern to formulate their intellectual identities and define their place within intellectual landscape. However, the self-perception and self-styling this involved could take on many forms and meanings. In an effort to address these areas, this paper explores how various methods developed to express new intellectual identities and adherence to doctrines, schools of thought, or even concrete groups of thinkers gathered in sociable circles. Considering and applying ideas recently published by Martin Mulsow, and using the radical","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"65 2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79593879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Johann Christian Edelmann’s Radicalism: A Synthesis of Enlightenment and Spirituality","authors":"Els Walravens","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82129","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82129","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper Johann Christian Edelmann’s radicalism is studied from two points of view. First, the reasons why he unanimously is labeled as a radical thinker are considered and evaluated: his vehement style and language, his affinity with radical pietism, his turn to rationalism, his Spinozism, his massive internal and external criticism of the Bible and of the Christian faith. Second, the threefold progressive message Edelmann wanted to transmit to us through his dynamic and unstructured works is revealed and discussed: his plea for peace and justice based on a secularization of Jezus’ gospel of love, his promotion of a non-dogmatic freethinking which combines freedom of thought and of speech with pluralism and open-mindedness, his defence of a pan(en)theistic, philosophical religiosity by which he extends the scope of religiosity beyond the limits of any established creed. The extreme rational nature of his external criticism of religion and his humanistic messages prove that Edelmann joined after a long journey the Enlightenment movement. Simultaneously, he remained a homo religiosus. His","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80026209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exorcizing Demons: Thomas Hobbes and Balthasar Bekker on Spirits and Religion","authors":"Alissa MacMillan","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82126","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82126","url":null,"abstract":"Thomas Hobbes devotes several chapters of Leviathan to a careful critique of belief in, and the uses and abuses of, demons, ghosts, and spirits. But his broader views on religion remain one of the more contested areas of his thought, leaving his role in the ‘Radical Enlightenment’ unclear. A thoroughgoing opposition to demons and ghosts was also one of the primary objectives of Dutch theologian Balthasar Bekker, a figure whose central role in the historical narrative on atheism is well defended and accounted for in Jonathan Israel’s Radical Enlightenment. Bekker was loudly declared an atheist of the worst sort, that is, of the Hobbesian or Spinozist sort. This paper engages an analysis and comparison of their respective treatments of demons and ghosts, elucidating several of the real differences in their views, and arguing that Hobbes’s critique of religion, one on the surface one quite similar in spirit to that of Bekker, is indeed the more ‘radical’ when considered in light of their distinctive epistemologies, arguments for God, and the main thrust of their projects. Alongside Bekker, the innovative elements of Hobbes’s critique of religion become especially clear.","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"52 Spec Issue 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83742800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Radical Enlightenment, Enlightened Subversion, and Spinoza","authors":"S. Lavaert","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82127","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82127","url":null,"abstract":"An important philosophical turn that took place in seventeenthand eighteenth-century Enlightenment thought was the abandonment of transcendence, the strict separation of religion and philosophy, and the rise of a one-substance immanent ontology. It has been argued that this ‘radical’ turn brought about the philosophical foundation for democracy. According to the thesis I will defend in what follows, immanent ontology indeed has a political subversive meaning. Inspired by the texts and ideas of Machiavelli, it entailed a radical change of focus: from a theologicalhierarchical structure to the horizontal structure of the world in which we live and in which all humans are equal. This radical change had consequences at the level of the civil state: e.g., the necessity of free thought and free speech, which may lead to resistance, refusal, and disobedience. I will argue that this Spinozistic radicalism can only be adequately understood if we take into account the radical thought of fellow thinkers from his circle, on the one hand, and the subversive image of Spinoza as constructed by his opponents on the other.","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"91 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83558038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Algebraic symbolism in the first algebraic works in the Iberian Peninsula","authors":"Fatima ROMERO VALLHONESTA","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82141","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82141","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86163806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Algebraic symbolism in medieval Arabic algebra","authors":"J. Oaks","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82139","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82139","url":null,"abstract":"Medieval Arabic books read more or less like transcriptions of lectures, a fact that stems from the fundamentally oral nature of medieval Islamic civilization. Books covering algebra are no exception. There we find algebraic solutions to problems written all out in words, with no notation even for numbers. But problems were not solved rhetorically. Algebraists would work out a problem in some kind of notation on a dust board or other ephemeral surface, and to record it in a book a rhetorical version of the calculations would be composed. From early texts it appears that only the coefficients of polynomials were written in Hindi notation. But in the Maghreb in the twelfth century a notation specific to algebra developed in which the power was indicated also. This symbolic notation is not presented as a scientific development in the manuscripts, but is instead shown in textbooks to instruct students in its use. In this article we explain the notation, its context, and how it differs from modern notation.","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83144006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The problem of Kuhnian rationality","authors":"Rogier de Langhe","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82144","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82144","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80400120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Surmounting obstacles: circulation and adoption of algebraic symbolism","authors":"Albrecht Heeffer","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82138","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82138","url":null,"abstract":"This introductory paper provides an overview of four contributions on the epistemological functions of mathematical symbolism as it emerged in Arabic and European treatises on algebra. The evolution towards symbolic algebra was a long and difficult process in which many obstacles had to be overcome. Three of these obstacles, related to the circulation and adoption of symbolism, are highlighted in this special volume: 1) the transition of material practices of algebraic calculation to discursive practices and text production, 2) the transition from manuscript production to printed works involving material limitations of typefaces, and 3) the transition of algebraic symbolism from a system of notation and representation to a tool of mathematical analysis. This paper will conclude with the observation that the whole development towards symbolization can be considered an obstacle by itself in the sense of ‘epistemic obstacles’ as used by Brousseau.","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76491437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The role of symbolic language in the transformation of mathematics","authors":"Ma Rosa Massa Esteve","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82142","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82142","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73881176","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Printers and algebraists in Mid-16th Century France","authors":"François Loget","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82140","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82140","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we investigate the relationships between two algebraists of the mid-sixteenth century France (Jacques Peletier du Mans and Pierre de La Ramee), and their printers, (Guillaume Cavellat, Jean de Tournes and Andre Wechel). Both authors published a treatise on algebra at a time when they were involved in a debate concerning French spelling. Did the consideration of these authors concerning symbolism had something to do with their reflections on vernacular language? In Peletier and Ramus's books, the symbolism is specific. Was their choice with regards to the use of symbolism influenced by their printers, or not?","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"45 5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83395756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}