The Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies / La société canadienne d’étude du dix-huitième siècle; Ninth International Congress on the Enlightenment

Abstract: Dominant, oppositional, alternative, and populist discourses compete with each other through their respective uses of ethnocultural terminology to develop inclusive or exclusive symbolic constructions of Canadian society. Résumé: Les discours dominant, d'opposition, altérnatif et populiste rivalisent les uns avec les autres par leur utilisation respective de la terminologie ethnoculturelle afin d'élaborer des constructions symboliques de la société canadienne qui englobent ou qui excluent.

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The “New Empire of Common Sense”

10.1093/oso/9780198783909.003.0009 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Paul B. Wood

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Common Sense ◽

Atlantic World ◽

Thomas Reid ◽

The Enlightenment ◽

Joseph Priestley ◽

Common Sense Philosophy

Although the rise of Scottish common sense philosophy was one of the most important intellectual developments of the Enlightenment, significant gaps remain in our understanding of the reception of Scottish common sense philosophy in the Atlantic world during the second half of the eighteenth century. This chapter focuses on the British context in the period 1764–93, and examines published responses to James Oswald, James Beattie, and, especially, Thomas Reid. The chapter contextualizes the polemics of Joseph Priestley against the three Scots and argues that it was Joseph Berington rather than Priestley who was the first critic to claim that the appeal to common sense was the defining feature of “the Scotch school” of philosophy. It also shows that Reid was widely acknowledged to be the founder and most accomplished exponent of the “school”, whereas Beattie and Oswald were typically dismissed as being derivative thinkers.

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Classical Learning in Britain, France, and the Dutch Republic, 1690-1750

10.1093/oso/9780198861690.001.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Floris Verhaart

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Ancient Greece ◽

Classical Antiquity ◽

General Point ◽

Classical Literature ◽

Sources Of Information ◽

Literary Value ◽

Age Of Reason ◽

Renaissance Humanism ◽

The Enlightenment

The Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was a moment when scholars and thinkers across Europe reflected on how they saw their relationship with the past, especially classical antiquity. Many readers in the Renaissance had appreciated the writings of ancient Latin and Greek authors not just for their literary value, but also as important sources of information that could be usefully applied in their own age. By the late seventeenth century, however, it was felt that the authority of the ancients was no longer needed and that their knowledge had become outdated thanks to scientific discoveries as well as the new paradigms of rationalism and empiricism. Those working on the ancient past and its literature debated new ways of defending their relevance for society. The different approaches to classical literature defended in these debates explain how the writings of ancient Greece and Rome could become a vital part of eighteenth-century culture and political thinking. Through its analysis of the debates on the value of the classics for the eighteenth century, this book also makes a more general point on the Enlightenment. Although often seen as an age of reason and modernity, the Enlightenment in Europe continuously looked back for inspiration from preceding traditions and ages such as Renaissance humanism and classical antiquity. Finally, the pressure on scholars in the eighteenth century to popularize their work and be seen as contributing to society is a parallel for our own time in which the value of the humanities is a continuous topic of debate.

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