‘The Empire of the Imagination’: The Association of Ideas in Hume’s Social Philosophy

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryu Susato
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
William Godwin ◽  
Human Reason ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
Strong Interest ◽  
Physiological Explanation

This chapter deals with the philosophical foundations of Hume’s social and political philosophy. Hume scholars have discussed his theory of association of ideas as a purely philosophical one. As many eighteenth-century critics were acutely aware, however, this theory must been considered an aspect of Epicureanism; one which allegedly undermines the spiritual aspect of human reason and virtues by transforming them into the mere consequences of habit and custom. What differentiates Hume’s associationist theory from more materialistic versions lies in the former’s emphasis on the psychological (not physiological) explanation of the workings of imagination. This is closely related to his defence of moral causes and his criticism of natural causes in the essay ‘Of National Characters’, which was to influence William Godwin. Although Duncan Forbes claims that Hume lost interest in his associationist theory after the Treatise, Hume in fact maintained a strong interest in this theory throughout his writings because the workings of imagination were the keystone for Hume in his continual investigations of the cultural diversity of human institutions.

Vico and Montesquieu: Limits of Pluralist Imagination

1999 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 55-78
Author(s):  
Bhikhu Parekh
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Cultural Pluralism ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
The World ◽  
Ways Of Life ◽  
Human Liberation

From Plato onward, western moral and political philosophy has been dominated by a monist impulse manifest in a search for the best way of life, the best form of government, the perfect society, the highest human faculty, the highest or the best religion, the single most reliable way to acquire knowledge of the world, and so on. In ethics it has taken the form of moral monism or the view that one way of life can be rationally shown to be the highest or truly human. This view has commanded the allegiance of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Locke, Mill, Marx, and others. Because monism despises neglected human faculties, virtues, and ways of life and has been a source of much violence and oppression, we cannot hope to provide a coherent theory of human liberation and freedom without developing a coherent theory of moral and cultural pluralism. Although moral monism was challenged from the very beginning by the Sophists, the skeptics, and others, a systematic critique of it was not mounted until the eighteenth century by such writers as Vico, Montesquieu, Montaigne, Herder, and others, who stressed the inevitability and even the desirability of cultural diversity.

Confucian Perfectionism

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Chan
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Moral Rights ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
Liberal Conception ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Conception Of The Good ◽  
The Right

Since the very beginning, Confucianism has been troubled by a serious gap between its political ideals and the reality of societal circumstances. Contemporary Confucians must develop a viable method of governance that can retain the spirit of the Confucian ideal while tackling problems arising from nonideal modern situations. The best way to meet this challenge, this book argues, is to adopt liberal democratic institutions that are shaped by the Confucian conception of the good rather than the liberal conception of the right. The book examines and reconstructs both Confucian political thought and liberal democratic institutions, blending them to form a new Confucian political philosophy. The book decouples liberal democratic institutions from their popular liberal philosophical foundations in fundamental moral rights, such as popular sovereignty, political equality, and individual sovereignty. Instead, it grounds them on Confucian principles and redefines their roles and functions, thus mixing Confucianism with liberal democratic institutions in a way that strengthens both. The book then explores the implications of this new yet traditional political philosophy for fundamental issues in modern politics, including authority, democracy, human rights, civil liberties, and social justice. The book critically reconfigures the Confucian political philosophy of the classical period for the contemporary era.

Introduction: Subjects and Systems

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Herzog
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Moral Criticism ◽  
Meso Level ◽  
Black Boxes ◽  
Private Corporations ◽  
Moral Questions

The Introduction sets out the problem this book addresses: organizations, in which individuals seem to be nothing but ‘cogs’, have become extremely powerful, while being apparently immune to moral criticism. Organizations—from public bureaucracies to universities, police departments, and private corporations—have specific features that they share qua organizations. They need to be opened up for normative theorizing, rather than treated as ‘black boxes’ or as elements of a ‘system’ in which moral questions have no place. The Introduction describes ‘social philosophy’ as an approach that addresses questions at the meso-level of social life, and situates it in relation to several strands of literature in moral and political philosophy. It concludes by providing a preview of the chapters of the book.

Ancestral Piles

2018 ◽  
pp. 519-541
Author(s):  
Sean Moreland
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Mary Shelley ◽  
Sir Walter Scott ◽  
Charles Brockden Brown ◽  
William Godwin ◽  
Ann Radcliffe ◽  
Horace Walpole ◽  
Architectural Model ◽  
Walter Scott

This essay examines Poe’s conception and use of the Gothic via his engagements with the work of earlier writers from Horace Walpole through Ann Radcliffe, William Godwin, Charles Brockden Brown, Mary Shelley, and E. T. A. Hoffmann. Poe’s uses of the Gothic, and his relationship with the work of these writers, was informed by his philosophical materialism and framed by his dialogue with the writings of Sir Walter Scott. Tracing these associations reveals Poe’s transformation of the idea of “Gothic structure” from an architectural model, the ancestral pile of the eighteenth-century Gothic, to one of energetic transformation, the electric pile featured in many of Poe’s tales.

Paternalism to Partnership: The Administration of Indian Affairs, 1786–2021

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Dejong
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Indian Policy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Biographical Sketch ◽  
Early American ◽  
Indian Affairs ◽  
Secretary Of War

Paternalism to Partnership provides a biographical sketch of each head of Indian affairs between 1786 and 2021 in context with each commissioner’s political philosophy. These administrators have been responsible for enforcing an Indian policy as directed by the president and/or the Congress but also influenced by their own political and social philosophy. From 1786-1848, authority was delegated to a superintendent of Indian affairs, a superintendent of the Indian trading houses, a superintendent of the Office of Indian Trade, a chief clerk, and a commissioner of Indian affairs, all of whom reported to the secretary of War. Since 1849, the commissioner of Indian affairs, and after 1977, the assistant secretary for Indian affairs have reported to the secretary of the Interior.   Today, the BIA is administered by the assistant secretary for Indian affairs—all of whom have been Native Americans. Previous studies focused on the commissioners, completely overlooking the superintendents that preceded them and the colonial and early American antecedents. David DeJong’s documentary edition is the first to provide an understanding of the political philosophy of each head of the Indian bureau through the emphasis of policy.

A Constituição de 1822 uma Filosofia Política Intempestiva

1998 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 39-47
Author(s):  
Viriato Soromenho-Marques ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Natural Right ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Restoration Age ◽  
Portuguese Society ◽  
The French Revolution

In this paper the philosophical foundations of the first Portuguese Constitution are submitted to critical analysis. Drafted in the aftermath of the 1820 Revolution, the Constitution of 1822 is deeply determined by contradictory tensions and forces. We may see in it the trace of the freedom trends developed in the Enlightenment period and led to practical terms in the dramatic battleground of the French Revolution. Nevertheless, the Portuguese Constitution of 1822 reflect also the energetic resistance from the conservative sectors and values of the Portuguese society and also the coming influence of the Restoration Age political philosophy, aimed to fight the rationalistic paradigm of natural right constitutional theories.

“On Pure Love”[Pl. 1:656–671]

Fénelon ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 224-236
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
Core Concept ◽  
Moral Thought

“On Pure Love” is one of many essays gathered by Fénelon’s editors under the heading Lettres et opuscules spirituels. This particular essay likely dates to the quietism controversy that reached its peak with the publication of Fenelon’s Maxims of the Saints in 1697. “On Pure Love” is properly a work of spirituality rather than political philosophy. Yet its theme—the concept of pure love untainted by self-love—represents Fénelon’s most extensive treatment of a core concept in his political and moral thought, and also presents an important source of reflection on self-love that synthesizes several seventeenth-century views and anticipates key eighteenth-century theories of self-love from Rousseau to Adam Smith.

Émile in Eighteenth-Century England

PMLA ◽  
1944 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 773-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
James H. Warner
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Human Reason

Many contemporary critics are returning to the old credo that human reason “is often unreasonable.” This probably helps to explain the current revival of that famous study of emotional and intuitive responses, the Émile (1762) of Jean Jacques Rousseau. In as much as contemporaneous English reactions to that work have never been extensively studied, I present my findings.

WAS CONDORCET A STOIC? ROUSSEAU, UNIVERSAL EDUCATION AND RATIONAL AUTONOMY IN THE FRENCH ENLIGHTENMENT

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 713-739
Author(s):  
G. MATTHEW ADKINS
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Philosophy Of Education ◽  
Universal Education ◽  
National Education ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
Education Philosophy ◽  
Modern Idea ◽  
French Enlightenment ◽  
Education Theory ◽  
Close Study

This article considers the philosophical foundations of the French Enlightenment through a close study of the Stoic influences on the Marquis de Condorcet's education philosophy. The article argues that although Condorcet did not acknowledge any direct Stoic influence, his philosophy of education nevertheless should be understood in the eclectic idiom of eighteenth-century Stoic discourse. Furthermore, Condorcet's Stoicism was entirely compatible with Rousseau's Stoicism to the degree that one could call Condorcet a Rousseauean at least in matters of education theory—even though Condorcet, a protégé of Voltaire, is usually presented as a critic of Rousseau. Finally, the article suggests that the notion of liberty that Condorcet seeks to make flourish through his national education plan is in line with the Stoic ideal of rational autonomy, despite Condorcet's insistence that the modern idea of liberty (that is, his own idea) is fundamentally different from the ancient idea.

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