This paper argues that a debate between Toland and Clarke is the intellectual context to help understand the motive behind the critic and the significance of Berkeley's response to the critic in PHK 60-66. These, in turn, are responding to Boyle's adaptation of a neglected design argument by Cicero. The paper shows that there is an intimate connection between these claims of natural science and a once famous design argument. In particular, that in the early modern period the connection between (...) the scientific revolution and a certain commitment to final causes, and god's design, is more than merely contingent. The details of PHK 60-66 support the idea that the critic is responding to concerns that by echoing features of Toland's argument Berkeley undermines the Newtonian edifice Clarke has constructed. (shrink)

Anthony Collins’Discourse on Freethinking(1713) claims an equal right of examining freely any proposition for each human being. However, the right he claims isn’t always clear, and a close reading shows that, in fact, he successively defends three versions of this right, each weighing the role of equality differently. In the first section, where both values appear consistent with one another, claimed freedom and equality of rights are, in fact, in tension with one another and Collins hesitates too much to solve (...) anything. Beyond theDiscourse, this exemplifies the early development of a problem that will become increasingly important in the Late Enlightenment. (shrink)

Článek se zabývá pojmem panteismus v období renesance. Ačkoli termín panteismus se objevil až na konci 17. století a později v kontextu tzv. “Pantheismusstreit”, za předchůdce moderního panteistického myšlení byl označen renesanční filosof Giordano Bruno. Následně i Mikuláš Kusánský, a to jakožto pokračovatel myšlení Mistra Eckharta, začal být považován za panteistu. Jak Kusánský, tak Bruno v určitém smyslu obhajovali imanenci božského ve světě, avšak zároveň oba zdůrazňovali rozdíl mezi Bohem a přírodou a připisovali Bohu transcendenci nebo přinejmenším transcendentální aspekty. Toto (...) není v souladu s definicí panteismu v tzv. silném slova smyslu, kdy se tvrdí striktní identita Boha a světa. Zdá se, že pojem renesanční panteismus je konstruktem, který byl vytvořen skrze násilnou aplikaci terminologie osvícenské filosofie na renesanční období. (shrink)

Wie Heine in den Memoiren bemerkt hat, sind ihm »alle Systeme der freyen Denker« seit seiner Schulzeit vertraut gewesen. Sie haben dauerhaft seinen »Unglauben« begründet. Der Aufsatz untersucht, welche Bedeutung das Denken und die Strategie der radikalen Aufklärung für den Dichter gehabt hat. Das betrifft erstens das Prinzip der zweifachen Lehre, zweitens die Methode des ›syllogismus practicus‹ und drittens die Glücksphilosophie.

Cet article établit que John Toland, né à la fin du xvne siècle, partageait la culture des Irlandais de langue maternelle gaélique. Il met en évidence l'intérêt de J. Toland, tout au long de sa vie, pour la culture et les langues celtes et repère l'influence de celles-ci sur le contenu et la présentation de ses idées peu orthodoxes.

Towards the end of the philosophical treatise Pantheisticon, published from the imaginary state of Cosmopolis in 1720, the author John Toland acknowledged a debt owed by the Pantheists to Cicero fo...

Leibniz's correspondence with Thomas Burnett of Kemnay is probably best known for Leibniz's attempts to communicate with Locke via Burnett. But Burnett was also, more generally a source of English intellectual news for Leibniz. As such, Burnett provided an important part of the context in which Locke was presented to and understood by Leibniz. This paper examines the Leibniz-Burnett correspondence, and argues against Jolley's suggestion that "the context in which Leibniz learned about Locke was primarily a theological one". That said, (...) in thinking about Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity, and his subsequent defenses of it, Leibniz does offer an argument against Locke's book -- but not one that's closely related to Locke's theological views, or to any accusation of Socinianism. The paper also considers, by way of contrast, the way Leibniz and Burnett talk about the more obviously controversial figure John Toland. (shrink)