Age Of Enlightenment Research Articles

A Conversation with Stephen M. Stigler

Stephen M. Stigler received his Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of California, Berkeley, with a dissertation on the asymptotic distribution of linear functions of order statistics. Starting in 1967, he taught at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, then in 1979 moved to the University of Chicago where he taught from 1979 to 2021. Stigler has worked on a variety of topics in mathematical statistics, ranging from asymptotic theory to the theory of experimental design, and on applications of statistics including in anthropology, forensic science, paleontology, psychology, information transfer and sports. In recent years, he has concentrated on the history of statistics, with inquiries ranging from the development of statistical methods in astronomy and geodesy and their spread to biological and social sciences, to lotteries, to the modern development of statistical theory. He has published four books, The History of Statistics (1986), Statistics on the Table (1999), The Seven Pillars of Statistical Wisdom (2016) and Casanova’s Lottery (2022). A recent research focus has been upon the way the work of Francis Galton on the statistics of inheritance led to the creation of modern multivariate analysis and made a true Bayesian inference possible, and on how R. A. Fisher’s transformation of Karl Pearson’s path breaking research led to a modern period of statistical enlightenment. Stigler is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Philosophical Society; he has served as President of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and of the International Statistical Institute. In 2005, he received the Humboldt Foundation Research Award; in 2010, he was elected Membre Associé of the Académie royale de Belgique, Classe des Sciences. Stigler served as Theory and Methods Editor for the Journal of the American Statistical Association 1979–1982. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1977, and received awards for undergraduate teaching at the University of Wisconsin (1971) and University of Chicago (1998). This interview with Stigler was conducted remotely in July 2021.

Основной вопрос философии образования

The article postulates the fundamental importance of the educational ideal in the socio-philosophical discussion on the topic of education and in the disciplinary discourse of the philosophy of education. The key milestones in the evolution of the concept of "educational ideal" are described, capturing the ideas that had a strong influence on changing its configuration. The theoretical origins of the study of the phenomenon of the educational ideal can be traced back to the times of antiquity, when the ideas of anthropocentricity and universality of the educational ideal and the duality of its form (meaning and purpose) arose. In subsequent eras, the educational ideal is discussed along these same substantive lines, with some adjustments to the spirit of the times. The ideas of the Enlightenment era became a turning point: the possibility of a universal educational ideal was called into question, and the contradictory idea of its sociocultural and historical-political conditionality was strengthened. The institutional substantive line of the educational ideal is developing. The attitude, rooted in the ideas of the utopians, to think of the ideal through its counter-ideal, which most often was the current state of the system, is being consolidated. The term "educational ideal" appeared in the writings of social thinkers of the 18th and 19th centuries. And it became the object of scientific analysis only in the second half of the 20th century, with the strengthening of the autonomous status of the philosophy of education. In the article, the educational ideal is considered a concatenation of meanings crystallized in the course of the historical development of social thought, reflection on the processes and content of education. The educational ideal is understood as an image of perfection that regulates ways of knowing and acting in the field of education, embodying in all its manifestations the idea of education and objectified in its purpose. The study of historical transformations of the concept "educational ideal" made it possible to determine its characteristics: ontology, invariance of the value core, simultaneous historicity and ahistoricality, conceptuality of content, and ideality of form.

The birth of the deep state

A number of political scientists believe that the ‘deep state’ originated simultaneously with the state itself. But in fact, the authors of the article prove that the first effective ‘deep state’ in modern history appeared in England during the time of Henry VIII. Then, having nationalized the church, the king added to his powers the right to create and interpret norms. In response, reacting to the imbalance of the political system created by the king, the English aristocracy set out to control the monarch. The newly created network of influence was based on corruption: belonging to it guaranteed, to an official in the king’s service, additional benefits and career perspectives. The mean of internal control of the network was ‘ritual compromising evidence’, when other members witnessed the violating of generally accepted norms and rules. This guaranteed that in case of betrayal the reputation and future of any potential renegade would be destroyed. However, this triggered the processes of ‘normalization of violations,’ which culminated in the Cromwellian revolution and the Westminster Confession, which not only nullified out all compromising evidence, but also abolished the concept of sin in general. After recovering from the upheaval, England managed to summarize and theorize its experience. In the following century, it started to extrapolate it to France, which was its main geopolitical rival, mastering the techniques of cognitive programming. The same processes, that had spontaneously developed in England a century earlier, were launched in France, but in a controlled and guided form. England managed to create its own ‘deep state’ in France, which, in fact, inspired and supported the French Enlightenment by introducing into the public discourse concepts, which were in fact, cognitive operators: their implementation led to the natural conclusion of the backwardness of France compared to England. At the same time, the ‘deep state’ became a stable construct: thus, classical institutionalism assumes it as an integral part of the secular political system. In particular, this was realized, and promoted as a norm, by J.-J. Rousseau. The authors draw a number of conclusions on the construction of the deep state. It is always a network of influence, an alternative to power, which actively uses corruption as an instrument of stimulation and employs compromising evidence as an instrument of control.

Sociable individualism: Christian Jakob Kraus and the Königsberg Enlightenment

ABSTRACT Christian Jakob Kraus (1753–1807), political economist and Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Königsberg, has long been neglected by historians, dismissed as a translator, a teacher, and a derivative disciple of Adam Smith. This article posits sociability as a useful category for understanding Kraus’s life, thought, and legacy. It aims to thereby reposition him as a meaningful figure in the late German Enlightenment. First, Kraus is presented as a natural Einsiedler who, surrounded by the commercially vibrant Königsberg, comes to champion a methodology foregrounding praxis, lived experience, and the application of ideas for communal benefit. This ‘sociable’ approach to knowledge is contextualised within broader critiques of scholarly esotericism across Germany. Second, his work is treated as a case study elucidating the interdependence of individualism and sociability in the wider European Enlightenment. I argue that Kraus expressed a ‘sociable individualism,’ drawing upon Smith and Immanuel Kant, which harmonised autonomy and community.

Film Attack on Titan dalam Pandangan Filsafat Eksistensialisme Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre is a famous figure in the fields of philoshophy and literature, considered one of the parents of contemporary existentialism. Existentialism is a philosophical school which argues that all phenomena originate from existence, or the existence of something. Existentialism is a protest against the concept of “logic” and “nature” which were emphasized in the enlightenment period (Enlightenment) in the eighteenth century. Sarte’s existentialist philosophical thought is La Liberte or human freedom. Humans are free, independent. Therefore, he must be free to determine and decide, he acts alone without other people around or with him. This research analyzes Jean-Paul Sartre's views on the theory of existentialism in the film Attack on Titan. This film is related to the theory of existentialism by Jean-Paul Sartre, a philosopher who developed the current of existentialism. By using the research method "library research" with a qualitative approach. The aim of this research is to describe the philosophical views of existentialism and analyze the extent to which the values and concepts in Jean-Paul Sartre's theory can be harmonized with the principles of Islamic teachings. In conclusion, it can be seen that the film "Attack on Titan" effectively reflects Sartre's thoughts about free human existence and responsibility for the world around him. Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism, although emphasizing personal responsibility and individual freedom, was secular and perhaps not in harmony with religious principles, especially Islam. Some concepts of existentialism, such as the emphasis on absolute freedom, can conflict with the Islamic view which places obedience to Allah as the main principle.

The Structural-Genetic Theory Programme as General Theory to Social Sciences

The structural-genetic theory programme is an offshoot of Piagetian theory and Piagetian Cross-Cultural Psychology. It resorts to the application of stage theory to history, that is to parallels between ontogenetic and historical stages. Accordingly, the adolescent stage of formal operations evolved late in history, usually not before the 17th century, making and causing the Age of Enlightenment, with its manifestations: rise of physical sciences, industrial economy, formulation of liberty rights and humanistic philosophy, emergence of classical music, etc. The new theory offers possibilities to unify all human disciplines and social sciences under one common roof as they all need a general theory of the human being which stage theory can provide. They all deal with historical developments such as the history of language, law, sciences, economy, morals, philosophy, arts, worldview, religion, and politics that is shaped and carried by psychogenetic stage developments of humans in history.

Devovi epigrami v Pisanicah

Parallel to its development in German Enlightenment literature epigram appeared also in Slovene poetry of the period. Between the years 1779 and 1781, Janez Damascen Dev published four epigrams in the first Slovene poetry almanac Pisanice, while six remained in manuscript form for the fourth volume. The article discusses structural features and the character of epigrams.

‘Bourgeois Enlightenment Revivified’

Abstract This article, inspired by Colin Jones’ ‘Bourgeois Revolution Revivified’, calls on historians to pay renewed attention to the social and economic contexts of the French Enlightenment, and its relationship to the rise of commercial capitalism. It criticizes influential works in the ‘social history of ideas’ for placing too much emphasis on the compatibility of the Enlightenment and Old Regime social structures, and instead suggests that French Enlightenment writing had a symbiotic relationship to the period’s consumer revolution. This relationship becomes clear if we recognize that consumerism centrally involved practices of self-cultivation. French Enlightenment writing not only provided the expanding reading public of the eighteenth century with tools and guides for self-cultivation, but actively encouraged the process through the styles and genres with which it sought to appeal to and interact with this public. The article concludes by noting that in the political context of late eighteenth-century France, social experience and intellectual exploration alike metamorphosed into pointed social critique, which worked especially to the benefit of the upper Third Estate—that is to say, France’s emerging bourgeoisie.

Historical and genetic generalization of ideas of formation qualities of service leadership

The article reveals the genesis of the ideas of the formation of service leadership at various stages of the development of human civilization and analyzes the most modern works devoted to the training of leaders, both Ukrainian and foreign authors. It is emphasized that with the emergence of the states of the Ancient East, ancient thinkers emphasized that a true leader knows truth and falsehood, teaches his subjects and leads them from benevolent motives. In the days of Antiquity, it was believed that there will always be intelligent and knowledgeable people on the rowing waves, and happiness can be achieved if kings and lords begin to philosophize nobly and persistently. It is argued that in the context of the Roman pedagogical tradition, an important component of the content of training leaders was the formation of oratorical skills. It is emphasized that during the Middle Ages, attention was paid to the formation of spiritual qualities, moral skills, the leader's faith in God and his observance of God's Commandments. At the same time, it is emphasized that during the Renaissance there was a turn to the principles and ideals of the ancient cultural heritage, and in the New Age and the Age of Enlightenment, feudal relations, the church and absolutism were condemned, and the ideas of education and philanthropism were promoted in the education of leaders. It is noted that in modern times, thinkers searched for new approaches, concepts for the formation of service leadership qualities in line with reformist pedagogy, the movement of a new school, which was created by the elite to train industry managers. At the same time, it is noted that in Independent Ukraine, significant attention was paid to the formation of leadership qualities in the fields of pedagogy, psychology, leadership, management, history, and social psychology.

Sociability and portraiture from William Hogarth to Thomas Lawrence

The period between 1730-1830 saw the rise of an English school of art, much later than the other schools on the European continent. English portrait painters played a crucial part in this evolution by deploying the art of portraiture in infinite variations, in search of a veracity and an intimacy whose contours and peculiarities they tirelessly strove to capture and render. Indeed, they radically transformed their chosen pictorial genre by transcribing onto canvas the new conceptions and perceptions of the individual which had emerged in the Age of Enlightenment. Sensitive to the new universalist values associated with the notions of identity, individuality and sociability, the British portraitists set out to represent the variety and diversity of human beings, moving away from ancient types and models to focus on the particular, singular, circumstantial personalities of the models. In this essay I try to present the narrative of this remarkable blossoming, focussing on the works of a series of exceptional artists—William Hogarth, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, Thomas Lawrence—whose works provide us with a remarkable visual chronicle of the evolutions of men, women and children in this rich moment in European history.

Kant's definition of an intellectual in the Age of Enlightenment

Kant's definition of an intellectual in the Age of Enlightenment

Sur les interprétations de « tout un autre côté » de Pascal

In 1696, in the Preface to the Analyse des infiniment petits pour l’intelligence des lignes courbes, L'Hôpital wrote, "As for Mr. Pascal, he turned his views completely to another side: he examined the curves themselves." Through the examination of this "completely different side," this article confronts the various possible meanings of a legacy that has been overlooked until today, notably during the Enlightenment era but also at the beginning of the 20th century, in the mathematical realm of infinity applied to the study of curves.

Еволюція ідей захисту прав дитини

The article examines the ideas of children's rights protection from a historical perspective. It was found that in the Antiquity period, a child's life was not regarded as particularly valuable; children could be killed or left without proper care. The state had a significant influence on the process of child-rearing, shaping the skills and beliefs necessary for society. During the Middle Ages, children were seen as an economic resource for the family, and religion had a substantial impact on their upbringing. The Renaissance marked an important period for the development of humanistic ideas concerning human rights, including children's rights. Ideas emerged about the necessity of protecting children's rights, ensuring their proper upbringing, and creating a conducive environment for the development of their moral and intellectual qualities. Childhood began to be recognized as a distinct stage of life with its own unique characteristics and needs. In the Enlightenment period, ideas about the necessity of protecting and guaranteeing children's rights began to take shape. It was recognized that children had a certain level of freedom and rights to self-expression and selfrealization. The Industrial Revolution of the 18th-19th centuries initiated discussions about the need to recognize children's rights to protection from exploitation, improve their living conditions, and legally enshrine children's rights. From the beginning of the 20th century, following World War I, there was a growing interest in the issue of child protection in most European and North American countries. In 1924, the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child was adopted, which, despite being purely declarative, became the first international legal document aimed at protecting children's rights and interests. In 1959, as a continuation of the ideas of the Geneva Declaration, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which was more comprehensive and detailed. However, these documents were not legally binding and served merely as recommendations. The 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child became the foundation for international protection of children's rights and is mandatory for implementation by the states that have ratified it.

Christianity and Law in the Enlightenment

The European and American Enlightenment movements of 1688 to 1815 transformed the Western legal tradition, notably in areas of constitutional law, criminal law, private law, legal and political theory, and legal education. Particularly the American and French Revolutions effected massive and sometimes violent changes to traditional patterns of law, politics, and society — separating church and state and placing a new premium on democratic rule of law by the general will and public opinion. These legal reforms were grounded in part in new Enlightenment liberal beliefs in deism, rationalism, individualism, and nationalism — ideas that came to strong expression in the many new constitutions and codes issued in the later 18th and 19th centuries. Even so, Enlightenment legal reformers often worked side by side with Christian legal reformers, and they reconstructed traditional Christian legal teachings more than they created laws anew. As a consequence, until the mid-19th century, there was more continuity than discontinuity between Enlightenment-based legal teachings and practices and those of the Western Christian tradition. The Enlightenment, however, provided new secular logics for many of the traditional laws that it adopted and then adapted, and these secular teachings would later fuel the more strident post-Christian, if not anti-Christian, legal campaign of modern liberalism.

La cera tra arte e scienza. Considerazioni sulla nascita e lo sviluppo della ceroplastica anatomica

The art of wax modelling spread in XIV-century Italy mainly for religious purposes. In decline artistically in the XVIII century, thanks to the Age of Enlightenment it flourished in the scientific study of normal and pathological anatomy, in obstetrics, in zoology and in botanics. The first anatomical models in coloured wax emerged as a result of the collaboration between Gaetano Giulio Zumbo, a Sicilian wax modeller, and a French surgeon towards the end of the 18th century. About 50 years later, the earliest anatomical wax workshops were established first in Bologna and then in Florence, gradually spreading this art throughout Europe. The remarkable mimetic likeness obtained through wax models led to its use in more specific branches such as obstetrics or pathological anatomy. Collections from four different countries will be briefly analysed to give an overview on how this art developed in the old continent.

Anthropological Landscapes in the Literature of the Age of Enlightenment

Anthropological Landscapes in the Literature of the Age of Enlightenment

ԹԱՐԳՄԱՆԱԿԱՆ ՄԱՆԿԱԳՐՈՒԹՅՈՒՆԸ ՀԱՅԿԱԿԱՆ ԱՌԱՋԻՆ ԱՇԱԿԵՐՏԱԿԱՆ ՊԱՐԲԵՐԱԿԱՆՆԵՐՈՒՄ / TRANSLATED CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN THE FIRST ARMENIAN CHILDREN’S PERIODICALS

This article aims to examine the role and impact of translated literature as reflected in the first Armenian children's and youth periodicals ('St. Burastan. Sahakyan,’ 1851- 1853, Constantinople; ‘Tutak Haykazian,’ 1854-1855; ‘Erkaser,’ 1855, Smyrna). The primary objective is to identify and analyze the content of materials translated for teenage readers. This study serves as an extension of our comprehensive research on children's literature translated in Armenian publications during the pre-Soviet era. The methodology employed in this study incorporates both qualitative and quantitative analyses, along with a historical approach. As part of the comparative analysis, reprints and individual translations of literary works were also examined, as they play a crucial role in shaping independent children's and young adult literature. Translated literature significantly influenced the literary and social landscape of Armenian-European interactions, aiding in the dissemination and preservation of global literary heritage. The Armenian intelligentsia of the time believed that national education and awakening required the adoption and spread of the finest European Enlightenment ideals among Armenian children and adolescents. This goal was pursued through the translation of ideologically relevant literature, which was published in the newly emerging periodicals aimed at students.

Karaites in the Ulus Jochi era and in the Crimean Kha­nate: The question of the origin of Karaite communities on the Crimean peninsula

Research objectives: An analysis and generalization of materials on the history of the emergence of Karaite communities on the territory of the Crimean peninsula in the era of the Ulus of Jochi and the Crimean Khanate. Research materials: As a result of comparing published materials on the history of the Crimean Karaites, data from archaeological and epigraphic studies, as well as in the process of studying the funds of the Russian State Historical Archive (RSHA, St. Petersburg) and the State Archive of the Republic of Crimea (SARC, Simferopol), information was analyzed related to the problem of the emergence of Karaite communities on the territory of Crimea in the era of Ulus Jochi and the Crimean Khanate. Results and scientific novelty: Many episodes in the history of the Crimean Karaites still remain outside the field of view of researchers. There is also the problem of interpretation of sources. In particular, this concerns the controversy about the origin of the Crimean Karaites and the time of their appearance on the territory of the Crimean peninsula, a process that had been going on for more than 100 years with the discussion sometimes going beyond scientific argumentation. The stages of the scientific study of the past of the Crimean Karaites are characterized by different levels of intensity, as well as large variety of methods and approaches used. Interest in this problem first arose among representatives of Russian academic circles in the first half of the 19th century. The Russian administration became interested in the history of the Karaites in part because the ideas of the European Enlightenment, which largely determined the policy of the Russian government in a number of key areas, implied the spread of Russian culture and education to the “Asian peoples.” In relation to the Karaites, Krymchaks, and Ashkenazi Jews, the Russian government adopted laws and regulations, in accordance with which the Karaites were able to legislatively strengthen their legal status. The Russian government, however, used restrictive measures by pursuing a discriminatory anti-Jewish policy against the Jewish population. The Karaites managed to get the authorities to recognize them as a community that differed from the Rabbanites while they received various legal and economic preferences. The same time period marked the onset of the large-scale activity of the famous collector of Jewish antiquities, Abraham Firkowicz, who initiated the creation of an extensive collection of manuscripts related to the history of Jewish communities, including in the Crimean peninsula. Based on the materials presented, it was concluded that the Karaite community could have appeared in the Crimea not earlier than the second half of the 13th century. Active resettlement of Karaites to the Crimea from the territories of the Middle East, Byzantium, and subsequently from the Ottoman Empire had been taking place since the middle of the 14th century. These chronological periods are also supported by material evidence of the stay of the Karaites in this region (archaeological and epigraphic studies of medieval Solkhat, Mangup-Kale, and Chufut-Kale).

Эксплицитные теологические предпосылки натурфилософских воззрений Дж. Толанда о материи и движении

John Toland (1670–1722) is known as one of the most extraordinary and bright representatives of the early British and certainly of the Western European Enlightenment as a whole. He is recognisable for his controversial religious-philosophical and natural philosophical ideas, usually qualified as deistic, materialistic, pantheistic. The historiography of Toland’s religious-philosophical views is quite extensive. As a rule, Russian and Western specialists emphasise deistic, materialistic-atheistic, pantheistic attributes of Toland’s religious-philosophical ideas, criticism and subversive nature of this ideas – orientation either against any Christian religious and theological doctrines, or against religion in general. The focus of this article is Toland’s natural philosophical views on matter and motion, as expressed in the fourth and fifth letters (addressed to an unnamed Dutch Spinozist) of the work Letters to Serena (1704). In general terms, Toland’s natural philosophical materialism has been and still is evaluated by many Russian and Western specialists only as a forerunner of modern forms of natural-scientific materialist discourse, as a predictable complement to his subversive religious-philosophical ideas. Toland is also predominantly identified as a thinker who sought to liberate natural philosophical views on matter and motion from theological constructs as much as possible. Vivid examples of the embodiment of such and similar interpretative attitudes when reading Toland’s reflections on matter and motion are presented in the studies of B.V. Meerovskiy and J. Brown. However, the author of this article is inclined to take the side of those scholars who, when interpreting Toland’s deistic and materialistic views, prefer to fix the presence of meaning-forming theological foundations in these views in a reasoned and justified manner. Such scholars include, for example, J. Champion and J. R. Wigelsworth. The article reviews a number of fragments of the fourth and fifth letters of Letters to Serena, which contain Toland’s conceptual judgements on matter and motion. The main ideas and propositions of these judgements are also highlighted. This allowed to identify and objectify some basic explicit (outlined directly in Letters) theological premises of Toland’s natural philosophical views on matter and motion.

The Enlightenment Museum as a Result of the Development of Education: The Case of the Musaeum Polonicum

The article presents the concept of the Musaeum Polonicum, developed in 1775 and published in the magazine Zabawy Przyjemne i Pożyteczne. Its author, Michał Jerzy Wandalin Mniszech (1748–1806), was an intellectual educated in the spirit of the European Enlightenment, involved in the scientific, cultural and political life of the Republic of Poland. He planned the museum as a didactic base for the academy of sciences and arts. The collection was to have a distinct national character, with educational and research functions. It was divided into groups corresponding to the Enlightenment classification of sciences. In the history of Polish museology, the Musaeum Polonicum was the first initiative to establish a national museum, although the project was ultimately not implemented.The research methodology was based on the classical historical approach of studying source texts, while taking into account the research perspectives of contemporary museological discourse. Archival materials representing two thematic groups were analysed: early museological texts which applied in the cultural area of the Republic of Poland in the second half of the eighteenth century, and texts related to Polish education and schooling. The results of these analyses are set in a European context. The aim of the article is to introduce a new research perspective to historical museology and the history of collecting. Its main assumption concerns the treatment of Enlightenment museums as a result of the development of education.