Published on behalf of the Voltaire Foundation, Oxford. Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-267) and index.
Contents:
Appendix: 'On the duties of the academician' / Acknowledgement -- Introduction / Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis. The four classes of the Berlin Academy / Peter R. Anstey -- 'Mother al all sciences' or mere speculation? The justification of metaphysics at the Berlin Academy between 1746 and 1765 / Annelie Grosse -- Eclectic philosophy and 'academic spirit': the Berlin Academy and the Thomasian legacy / Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet -- In search of a 'golden mean': experience and reasoning according to Louis de Beausobre / Angela Ferraro -- Maupertuis, Euler and the Leibnizian metaphysics behind the Principle of least action / Ansgar Lyssy -- Euler and the reflexive origin of the idea of space / Christian Leduc -- Experimental-Metaphysik at the Berlin Academy: the odd alliance between experience, mathematics and teleology / Paola Basso -- Origins of the arts, origins of man in Sulzer's academic essays / Alessandro Nannini -- Appendix: 'On the duties of the academician' / Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis.
Summary:
"This collection sheds new light on the nature, role and practice of philosophy and science in the renewed Berlin Academy from the mid-1740s to the 1770s, and in so doing provides a robust new instalment of materials for the broader task of constructing a historiography of philosophy at this important Enlightenment institution. The collection ranges from discussions of the roles of philosophy and natural philosophy in the formation of the reinvigorated Academy in the mid-1740s, to conceptions of the correct philosophical methodology to be deployed by the Academy. It provides the first ever study of the nature and arrangement of the new classes of the Academy, and a fresh appraisal of the Academy's methodological eclecticism. One recurring theme is the status of metaphysics: there are studies of both special metaphysics, including the study of the soul; general metaphysics, that is, the study of being in general; and foundational metaphysical principles and concepts, such as Maupertuis's Principle of least action, Euler's concept of space and Lambert's notion of an experimental metaphysics. The collection also takes the study of the Academy in new directions through focused studies of important figures whose writings deserve to be better understood, such as Jean Bernard Merian, Louis de Beausobre, Jean Henri Samuel Formey and Johann Georg Sulzer."--Page 4 of cover.
Series:
Oxford University studies in the Enlightenment, 2634-8047 ; 2022:11
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.