Ancient wisdom in the age of the new science : histories of philosophy in England, c. 1640-1700 / Dmitri Levitin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Levitin, Dmitri, author.

Series:

Ideas in context ; 113.

Ideas in context ; 113

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy--England--History--17th century.

Philosophy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 670 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Summary:

Seventeenth-century England has long been heralded as the birthplace of a so-called 'new' philosophy. Yet what contemporaries might have understood by 'old' philosophy has been little appreciated. In this book Dmitri Levitin examines English attitudes to ancient philosophy in unprecedented depth, demonstrating the centrality of engagement with the history of philosophy to almost all educated persons, whether scholars, clerics, or philosophers themselves, and aligning English intellectual culture closely to that of continental Europe. Drawing on a vast array of sources, Levitin challenges the assumption that interest in ancient ideas was limited to out-of-date 'ancients' or was in some sense 'pre-enlightened'; indeed, much of the intellectual justification for the new philosophy came from re-writing its history. At the same time, the deep investment of English scholars in pioneering forms of late humanist erudition led them to develop some of the most innovative narratives of ancient philosophy in early modern Europe.

Contents:

Cover; Half-title page; Series page; Title page; Copyright page; Contents; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Notes on the text; 1 Introduction: histories of philosophy between 'Renaissance' and 'Enlightenment'; 1.1 Method: the history of scholarship, the history of philosophy, or the history of intellectual culture?; 1.2 The historiography of the history of philosophy; 1.3 English intellectual culture, c. 1640-1700; 1.4 The argument; 2 Ancient wisdom I. The wisdom of the east: Zoroaster, astronomy, and the Chaldeans, from Thomas Stanley to Thomas Hyde

5 Histories of natural philosophy II. Histories of doctrine: matter theory and animating principles5.1 Histories of matter theory; 5.2 Scholarly and religious responses to Gassendi's history of matter theory; 5.3 Natural philosophical histories of matter theory; 5.4 Ancient philosophy as idolatrous animism; 5.5 Conclusion; 6 Philosophy in the early church; 6.1 Sources; 6.2 The early church in philosophical context; 6.3 A new patristics; 6.4 Two early radicals: Hobbes and Beale; 6.5 Platonism, monasticism, and enthusiasm in the early church; 6.6 The acceptance of Platonism in the early church

6.7 The trinitarian controversy6.8 Enlightenment?; 6.9 Conclusion; 7 Conclusion; Bibliography; Index

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-316-39392-5

1-316-39716-5

1-316-39936-2

1-316-39990-7

1-316-39878-1

1-316-22661-1

1-316-40044-1

OCLC:

925280767