Rival Enlightenments is a major reinterpretation of early modern German intellectual history. Ian Hunter treats the civil philosophy of Pufendorf and Thomasius and the metaphysical philosophy of Leibniz and Kant as rival intellectual cultures or paideia, thereby challenging all histories premised on Kant's supposed reconciliation and transcendence of the field. This landmark study argues that the marginalization of civil philosophy in post-Kantian philosophical history may itself illustrate the continuing struggle between the rival enlightenments. Combining careful scholarship with vivid polemic, Hunter presents penetrating insights for philosophers and historians alike.
Author(s): Ian Hunter
Edition: 1
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 425
Table of Contents......Page 8
Preface......Page 10
Acknowledgements......Page 15
List of abbreviations and texts used......Page 17
Note on conventions......Page 20
Introduction......Page 22
PART I RIVAL ENLIGHTENMENTS......Page 52
1.1 Introduction......Page 54
1.2 Metaphysics as the philosophical subsumption of theology......Page 58
1.3 The return of metaphysics to the Protestant academy......Page 61
1.4 The metaphysical ethos......Page 73
1.5 Political metaphysics......Page 79
2.1 Introduction......Page 84
2.2 Reductions of the civil: society and reason......Page 87
2.3 Sources of the civil: politics and law......Page 94
2.4 Civil philosophy and profane natural law......Page 106
PART II CIVIL AND METAPHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY......Page 114
3.1 Introduction......Page 116
3.2 From Protestant Schulmetaphysik to rationalist metaphysics......Page 119
3.3 The subject of metaphysics......Page 123
3.4 Philosophical theology......Page 136
3.5 The metaphysics of law......Page 147
4.1 Introduction......Page 169
4.2 Moral philosophy and political obligation......Page 175
4.3 From moral personality to civil personae......Page 184
4.4 From transcendent reflection to chastened observation......Page 190
4.5 Political subjecthood and civil sovereignty......Page 201
5.1 Introduction......Page 218
5.2 Thomasius and the history of moral philosophy......Page 223
5.3 The attack on metaphysical scholasticism......Page 230
5.4 Detranscendentalising ethics......Page 244
5.5 Natural law......Page 255
5.6 From moral philosophy to political jurisprudence......Page 272
Afterword: Thomasius, Wolff, and the Pietists......Page 286
6.1 Introduction......Page 295
6.2 The morals of metaphysics......Page 300
6.3 Kant’s metaphysical ethos......Page 306
6.4 Moral philosophy as metaphysical paideia......Page 314
6.5 The metaphysics of law......Page 337
6.6 The pure religion of reason......Page 358
Postscript: The kingdom of truth and the civil kingdom......Page 385
List of references......Page 398
D......Page 413
K......Page 414
M......Page 415
P......Page 416
S......Page 417
W......Page 418
Z......Page 419
