scholarly journals Anti-Essentialism and the Rhetoricization of Knowledge: Mario Nizolio's Humanist Attack on Universals *

2012 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lodi Nauta
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Sensitive Analysis ◽  
Early Modern Philosophy ◽  
Renaissance Humanism ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Scholastic Philosophy ◽  
The Way

AbstractWell-known for his Ciceronianism as well as for his crass nominalism and virulent attack on universals, the humanist Mario Nizolio (1488–1567) is often considered to be a forerunner of early modern philosophy. But although his name duly features in general accounts of Renaissance humanism and philosophy, his work, edited by Leibniz in 1670, has hardly been the subject of a philosophically sensitive analysis. This article examines Nizolio's attempt to reform scholastic philosophy, paying particular attention to the way in which he de-ontologized the scholastic categories and predicables (genus, species, etc.) and replaced philosophical abstraction with the rhetorical concept of synecdoche. His views on science, proof, argumentation, and rhetoric are discussed, as well as the humanist inspiration from which they issue. We will then be able to evaluate the strength and limitations of Nizolio's program in the wider tradition of early modern philosophy.

The Problem of Universals in Early Modern Philosophy

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Ontological Status ◽  
Nicolas Malebranche ◽  
Early Modern Philosophy ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Pierre Gassendi ◽  
Ralph Cudworth ◽  
Henry More ◽  
Scholastic Philosophy

The ancient topic of universals was central to scholastic philosophy, which raised the question of whether universals exist as Platonic forms, as instantiated Aristotelian forms, as concepts abstracted from singular things, or as words that have universal signification. It might be thought that this question lost its importance after the decline of scholasticism in the modern period. However, the fourteen contributions to this volume indicate that the issue of universals retained its vitality in modern philosophy. Modern philosophers in fact were interested in three sets of issues concerning universals: (1) issues concerning the ontological status of universals, (2) issues concerning the psychology of the formation of universal concepts or terms, and (3) issues concerning the value and use of universal concepts or terms in the acquisition of knowledge. Chapters in this volume consider the various forms of “Platonism,” “conceptualism,” and “nominalism” (and distinctive combinations thereof) that emerged from the consideration of such issues in the work of modern philosophers. The volume covers not only the canonical modern figures, namely, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant, but also more neglected figures such as Pierre Gassendi, Pierre-Sylvain Regis, Nicolas Malebranche, Henry More, Ralph Cudworth, and John Norris.

Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy, Volume X

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Early Modern Philosophy ◽  
Annual Series ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Modern Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Selection Of

Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes work on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. The core of the subject matter is philosophy and its history. But the volume’s chapters reflect the fact that philosophy in the early modern period was much broader in its scope than it is currently taken to be and included a great deal of what now belongs to the natural sciences. Furthermore, philosophy in the period was closely connected with other disciplines, such as theology, law and medicine, and with larger questions of social, political, and religious history. Volume 10 includes chapters dedicated to a wide set of topics in the philosophies of Thomas White, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume.

scholarly journals O trzech rodzajach abstrakcji

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 7-16
Author(s):  
Damian Leszczyński
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Early Modern Philosophy ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Classical Philosophy ◽  
Method Of Abstraction ◽  
Insight Into

The article discusses three ways of applying the method of abstraction in philosophical research. The first is related to classical philosophy and Aristotle’s method, the second to early modern philosophy referring to mathematics and natural sciences as a model, and the third one to broadly understood transcen-dental philosophy, using a specific type of insight into the structure of the subject.

Quid est causa? The Debate on the Definition of ‘Cause’ in Early Jesuit Scholasticism

Vivarium ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 111-139
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Capriati
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Poor Knowledge ◽  
Early Modern Philosophy ◽  
The Common ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Way

AbstractFrancisco Suárez’s thought has often been interpreted as paving the way for early modern philosophy, and causation is one of the themes in which his name is regularly associated with modern ideas. This is, however, an extrinsic relation – despite our lamentably poor knowledge of early modern scholasticism, Suárez’s doctrines can only be properly understood in relation to their proximate scholastic context. This article attempts a reevaluation of the importance of this context through an analysis of the definition of ‘cause’ in early modern scholasticism, focusing on the influence of Jesuit authors such as Toledo, Perera, and Fonseca on Suárez’s famous definition of ‘cause’, often considered as an anticipation of Descartes’ reduction of causality to efficiency. As it turns out, the proximate context of this definition provides not only the debate to which Suárez responds, but also the common conception of causality that Suárez tries to define more properly than his predecessors.

Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy, Volume VIII

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Early Modern Philosophy ◽  
Annual Series ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Modern Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Selection Of

Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes work on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. The core of the subject matter is philosophy and its history. But the volume’s chapters reflect the fact that philosophy in the early modern period was much broader in its scope than it is currently taken to be and included a great deal of what now belongs to the natural sciences. Furthermore, philosophy in the period was closely connected with other disciplines, such as theology, and with larger questions of social, political, and religious history. Volume 8 includes chapters dedicated to a wide set of topics in the philosophies of Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Wolff, and Kant.

Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy, Volume IX

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Early Modern Philosophy ◽  
Annual Series ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Modern Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Selection Of

Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes work on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. The core of the subject matter is philosophy and its history. But the volume’s chapters reflect the fact that philosophy in the early modern period was much broader in its scope than it is currently taken to be and included a great deal of what now belongs to the natural sciences. Furthermore, philosophy in the period was closely connected with other disciplines, such as theology, law, and medicine, and with larger questions of social, political, and religious history. Volume 9 includes chapters dedicated to a wide set of topics in the philosophies of Descartes, Malebranche, Locke, Leibniz, Hume, and Kant.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjorie Levinson
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Martin Heidegger ◽  
Conceptual Structure ◽  
Field Theories ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Early Modern Philosophy

The Introduction explains the combination of a narrative arc and conceptual structure in the organization of the book. The former, primarily diachronic, discussion is concerned with the development of the field of Romanticism since the 1980s, presented through both a review of scholarship and exemplary readings of well-known lyric poems. The latter, predominantly synchronic, presentation entails an argument for the analytical value of field theories of form—that is, frameworks drawn from early modern philosophy (Spinoza) and postclassical life- and physical sciences, especially models of self-organization. As an alternative to the external, retrospective perspective provided by, for example, Rita Felski in The Limits of Critique, it draws on the work of Martin Heidegger, Pierre Macherey, and the poet-critic J. H. Prynne to offer a conjunctural approach.

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