Rival Enlightenments

Civil and Metaphysical Philosophy in Early Modern Germany
Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-0-521-79265-3
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 60, 425 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 839 g

Reihe: Ideas in Context

Rival Enlightenments is a major reinterpretation of early modern German intellectual history. Ian Hunter approaches philosophical doctrines as ways of fashioning personae for envisaged historical circumstances, here of confessional conflict and political desacralization. He treats the civil philosophy of Pufendorf and Thomasius and the metaphysical philosophy of Leibniz and Kant as rival intellectual cultures or paideiai, thereby challenging all histories premised on Kant's supposed reconciliation and transcendence of the field. This study reveals the extraordinary historical self-consciousness of the civil philosophers, who repudiated university metaphysics as inimical to the intellectual formation of those administering desacralized territorial states. The book argues that the marginalization of civil philosophy in post-Kantian philosophical history may itself be seen as a continuation of the struggle between the rival enlightenments. Combining careful and well-documented scholarship with vivid polemic, Hunter presents penetrating insights for philosophers and historians alike.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hunter, Ian

Skinner, Quentin

Tully, James

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface; Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations and texts used; Note on conventions; Introduction; Part I. Rival Enlightenments: 1. University metaphysics; 2. Civil philosophy; Part II. Civil and Metaphysical Philosophy: 3. Leibniz' political metaphysics; 4. Pufendorf's civil philosophy; 5. Thomasius and the desacralisation of politics; 6. Kant and the preservation of metaphysics; Postscript: the kingdom of truth and the civil kingdom; List of references; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Hunter, Ian
IAN HUNTER is Professor of Humanities and Founding Director of the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.