463. Doctors without Borders: the Republic of Letters
How scholars around Europe created an international network of intellectual exchange. As examples we consider the activities of Mersenne, Peiresc, Leibniz, Calvet, and Hartlib.
For my interview with Michael Carhart about Leibniz's correspondence go to the first of the bonus series of ten episodes on German philosophy and the world under Bonus Episodes!
Themes:
• H. Bots and F. Waguet, La République des Lettres (Paris: 1997)
• L.W.B. Brockliss, Calvet’s Web: Enlightenment and Republic of Letters in Eighteenth-Century France (Oxford: 2002).
• M. Carhart, Leibniz Discovers Asia: Social Networking in the Republic of Letters (Baltimore: 2019).
• L. Daston, “The Ideal and the Reality of the Republic of Letters in the Enlightenment,” Science in Context 4 (1991), 367-86.
• P. Dear, Mersenne and the Learning of the Schools (Ithaca: 1988).
• P. Findlen (ed.), Empires of Knowledge: Scientific Networks in the Early Modern World (Abingdon: 2019).
• M. Fumaroli, “La République des Lettres,” Diogène 143 (1988), 131-50.
• A. Goldgar, Impolite Learning: Conduct and Community in the Republic of Letters, 1680-1750 (New Haven: 1995).
• D. Goodman, The Republic of Letters: a Cultural History of the French Enlightenment (London: 1994).
• P.N. Miller, Peiresc’s Europe: Learning and Virtue in the Seventeenth Century (New Haven: 2000).
• C. Pal, Republic of Women: Rethinking the Republic of Letters in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge: 2012).
• M. Ultee, “The Republic of Letters: Learned Correspondence, 1680-1720,” Seventeenth Century 2 (1987), 95-112.
Comments
Covering the Americas and continuance of scholasticism
In this “season” on the 17th and 18th centuries, do you plan to start covering the colonial regions of the Americas as places where philosophy was produced in their own right? Or do you plan to take up that task in another series?
I’d also like to ask if you’ll be covering a bit in the Catholic scholastic philosophical sphere that was still continuing alongside and in interaction with (and in reaction to!) this emerging “modern” philosophy, at least for the 17th century. Indeed, I’ve read that this period is considered to have been the golden age of Scotism, some relatively well-known figures including Filippo Frabri, Luke Wadding, John Punch, Bartolomeo Mastri, and Francisco Macedo. I do understand though that less episodes are going to be made on scholasticism as it had diminishing influence during this period.
In reply to Covering the Americas and continuance of scholasticism by CaptainCH
More scholasticism
Thanks, I will look into that Scotism issue. Indeed I was thinking that Latin American scholasticism would go into a future Americas series, rather than the "European" series. Though I should try at least to allude to it.
In reply to More scholasticism by Peter Adamson
Americas and scholasticism
Sounds cool! I’ll definitely be interested to see how you tackle Latin American philosophy down the line, it’s quite under-appreciated in my opinion. I’m assuming it would become more of a “side series” (for lack of better term) outside the main European narrative like you did with Indian, African and Chinese philosophy?
In reply to Americas and scholasticism by CaptainCH
Side series
Yes exactly, the idea would be to do Philosophy of the Americas after we are done with Classical China. I might release European ones more frequently though, like 2 European to 1 non-European episodes, or something like that, just because I think the Americas series would be quite a challenge in terms of doing the research so it might take longer.
Add new comment