scholarly journals Why Looking at Objects Matters

Museum Worlds ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-59
Author(s):  
Adam Bencard
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Museum Studies ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Philosophical Argument ◽  
Cultural Meaning ◽  
Rational Thinking ◽  
Philosophical Discourse ◽  
Recent Interest ◽  
German Philosopher ◽  
Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten

Within museum studies, there has been a recent interest in engaging with objects and their material effects as something other than vehicles for human cultural meaning. This article contributes to this interest by offering a philosophical argument for the value of close sensory engagement with physical things, an argument found in the works of the eighteenth-century German philosopher Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714–1762), who is famous for fathering the modern philosophical discourse on aesthetics. Baumgarten outlines what he terms sensate thinking, defined as an analogue to rational thinking, and insists that this form of thinking can be analyzed and sharpened according to its own rules. I discuss how Baumgarten’s aesthetics might be useful for how the curator approaches objects in exhibitions and for understanding how visitors’ sensory engagement with the objects can be important beyond the deciphering of historical narratives and conceptual meanings.

Kant and a Philosophical History of Logic

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huaping Lu-Adler
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
History Of Logic ◽  
Philosophical Discourse ◽  
Systematic Philosophy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Eighteenth Century ◽  
Kantian Theory

This chapter discusses certain exegetical challenges posed by Kant’s logic corpus, which comprises the Logic compiled by Jäsche, Kant’s notes on logic, transcripts of his logic lectures, and remarks about logic in his own publications. It argues for a “history of philosophical problems” method by which to reconstruct a Kantian theory of logic that is maximally coherent, philosophically interesting, and historically significant. To ensure a principled application of this method, the chapter considers Kant’s conception of history against the background of the controversy between eclecticism and systematic philosophy that shaped the German philosophical discourse during the early eighteenth century. It thereby looks for an angle to make educated decisions about how to select materials from each of the periods considered in the book and builds a historical narrative that can best inform our understanding of Kant’s theory of logic.

A Comparison of Wolff’s and Kant’s Receptions of Emanuel Swedenborg

Kant-Studien ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 112 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Laura Follesa
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Wolff ◽  
Emanuel Swedenborg ◽  
German Philosopher ◽  
The One

Abstract Kant’s Dreams of a Spirit-Seer (1766) did not provide the sole perspective through which Emanuel Swedenborg’s work was known in Germany in the eighteenth century. Before Kant, another German philosopher was interested in Swedenborg from a completely different perspective: Christian Wolff. On the one hand, this paper analyzes the meaning of Wolff’s anonymous reviews of Swedenborg’s early writings published in Acta Eruditorum, the authorship of which was only recently discovered, in order to show Swedenborg’s intertwinement with German scholars during the 1720s. On the other, I juxtapose Kant’s and Wolff’s evaluations of Swedenborg’s work at the origins of their different attitudes towards fundamental problems such as the nature of the soul and immortality.

scholarly journals Tradiciones discursivas en una polémica dieciochesca entre aristotélicos y novatores

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Carpi
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Philosophical Argument ◽  
Philosophical Discourse ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Discursive Traditions

The philosophical discourse in Spanish was born in the first decades of the 18th century, when the proponents of modern ideas abandoned Latin, in which were written the treatises on philosophy of the previous centuries. The debate between novatores and Aristotelians characterizes the cultural panorama of the first decades of the Enlightenment, and with the entrance in Spain of the ideas of the modern philosophers, new discursive traditions are created. This paper analyzes a corpus formed by texts of philosophical argument published in Spain during the first part of 18th century, with the purpose of investigating the passage from the discursive tradition of the syllogism to structures that bring with them a greater degree of objectivity and impersonality.

Hannah’s “Hard Day” and Hesiod’s “Two Roads”: Poetic Wisdom in Philo’s De ebrietate

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney J. P. Friesen
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Philosophical Discourse ◽  
The Road ◽  
History Of Interpretation ◽  
Recent Interest ◽  
Didactic Poetry ◽  
History Of ◽  
Moral Lesson ◽  
1 Samuel ◽  
Literary Methods

In De ebrietate 150, Philo quotes Hesiod’s Works and Days (287, 289-292) in his interpretation of Hannah’s alleged drunkenness in 1 Samuel. These poetic verses contrast the difficulty of the road to virtue with the ease of acquiring wickedness. On Philo’s reading, the misperception of Hannah’s “hard day” by her accuser illustrates the moral lesson of Hesiod, namely, that fools consider virtue to be beyond attainment. In the context of recent interest in the ways in which Philo’s literary methods converge with those of other ancient readers, especially Alexandrian scholars, this study situates Philo’s application of Hesiod’s didactic poetry within its wider history of interpretation. As early as Plato and continuing through Philo’s time, Hesiod’s “two roads” was frequently cited in philosophical discourse and debate. Moreover, analogously to Philo, Alexandrian critics employed this passage in explaining the morality of literary characters. Philo’s use of Hesiod is consistent with this interpretive tradition. At the same time, his originality consists in his creation of a dialogue between Hesiod and biblical narrative in which both voices converge around the same ethical lesson.

Tetens, Johann Nicolaus (1736–1807)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunter Zoller
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Second Career ◽  
Moses Mendelssohn ◽  
Descriptive Account ◽  
German School ◽  
German Philosopher ◽  
School Philosophy ◽  
The Mind

Tetens was a German philosopher, mathematician and physicist, with a second career as a Danish government official, who was active in Northern Germany and Denmark during the second half of the eighteenth century. Together with Johann Heinrich Lambert and Moses Mendelssohn, Tetens forms the transition from the German school philosophy of Leibniz, Wolff and Crusius to the new, critical philosophy of Kant. Tetens’ philosophical work reflects the combined influence of contemporary German, British and French philosophical currents. His main contribution to philosophy is a detailed descriptive account of the principal operations of the human mind that combines psychological, epistemological and metaphysical considerations. While showing a strong empiricist leaning, Tetens rejected the associationist and materialist accounts of the mind, favoured in Britain and France, and insisted on the active, spontaneous role of the mind in the formation and processing of mental contents.

scholarly journals Narrating Sovereignty: The Covenant Chain in Intercultural Diplomacy

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 118-144
Author(s):  
Heather Hatton
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Metaphorical Language ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History

This article considers Haudenosaunee recitals of the history of the Covenant Chain as a powerful communicative mechanism to define and assert sovereign identity and rights in the context of intercultural diplomacy. It reflects initially on the metaphorical language used to structure these historical narratives and how it enabled the Haudenosaunee to articulate self-understandings of their sovereignty. Contending that the narrative’s main power stemmed from its application in specific diplomatic contexts, the article then examines three instances when the Haudenosaunee recounted the entire history of the Chain during mid-eighteenth century treaty councils with the British. It explores the reasons underpinning the narrative’s use on these occasions and its overall implications. Finally, the article discusses the adoption of the narrative by one British diplomat, Sir William Johnson, considering his motivations for using the Covenant Chain and its intended effects.

A. J. Davis’s Belmead

2012 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-167
Author(s):  
Daniel Bluestone
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Architectural History ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Agricultural System ◽  
Cultural Meaning ◽  
James River ◽  
Gothic Revival ◽  
Classical Architecture ◽  
Chattel Slavery ◽  
Slave Quarters

In 1845 Philip St. George Cocke commissioned Alexander Jackson Davis to design a Gothic revival villa for Belmead. In doing so he radically departed from the tradition of Palladian and classical architecture that had characterized elite Virginia plantations since the mid-eighteenth century. In A. J. Davis’s Belmead: Picturesque Aesthetics in the Land of Slavery, Daniel Bluestone argues that a Davis design resonated differently on the banks of the James River than on the banks of the Hudson. The appeal of Davis’s design lay in its sensitivity to the reciprocity between buildings and landscape, highlighting Cocke’s advocacy of greater stewardship of the land in the place of generations of ruinous agricultural practices. Beyond his villa and his land, Cocke commissioned Davis to design Belmead’s slave quarters. This was an attempt to harmonize himself with his slaves and the nation with an agricultural system based upon chattel slavery rather than yeomen farmers. This essay encourages us to look beyond the universals that often frame architectural history discussions of picturesque aesthetics to situate picturesque designs more precisely within a place-centered context of client vision and socio-cultural meaning.

G. F. Meiers rhetorisierte Logik und die freien Künste

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-178
Author(s):  
Riccardo Pozzo
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Peculiar Feature ◽  
Theory Of Knowledge ◽  
Specific Function ◽  
Philosophical Discourse

A peculiar feature of the philosophy of Georg Friedrich Meier (1718–1777) lies in its being based on rhetorical principles. We are in front of an important construct that claims for attention in the context of the growing literature on eighteenth-century rhetoric. The syntagm ‘rhetoricised logic’ indicates a specific function of rhetoric as the basis for rethinking philosophical discourse. The paper shows that Meier's philosophical programme is consistently based on the trivium. On top of this, the paper compares Meier and Immanuel Kant on the ancient topos of the artes liberales, thus making it clear that the position of Meier can be assessed as a model for a rhetorically founded theory of knowledge, which was transformed and overcome by Kant.

Bourgeoisie

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Maza
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Social History ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
French History ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

The concept of a group called “the bourgeoisie” is unusual in being both central to early modern and modern European history, and at the same time highly controversial. In old regime France, people frequently used the words “bourgeois” or “bourgeoisie” but what they meant by them was very different from the meaning historians later assigned to those terms. In the nineteenth century the idea of a “bourgeoisie” became closely associated with Marxian historical narratives of capitalist ascendancy. Does it still make sense to speak of a “bourgeoisie”? This article attempts to lay out and clarify the terms of the problem by posing a series of questions about this aspect of the social history of Ancien Régime France, with a brief look across the Channel for comparison. It considers first the problem of definition: what was and is meant by “the bourgeoisie” in the context of early modern French history? Second, what is the link between eighteenth-century economic change and the existence and nature of such a group, and can we still connect the origins of the French Revolution to the “rise” of a bourgeoisie? And finally, can the history of perceptions and representations of a bourgeoisie or middle class help us to understand why the concept has been so problematic in the longer run of French history?

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