The Sources of Secularism: Enlightenment and Beyond

ISBN-13: 9783319653938 / Angielski / Twarda / 2017 / 323 str.

Anna Tomaszewska; Hasse Hamalainen

Opis

Answers to these and related questions are sought not only in current theories and debates in political philosophy, but also in the writings of Immanuel Kant, Benedict Spinoza, Thomas Hobbes, Anthony Collins, Adriaan Koerbagh, Abbe Claude Yvon, Giovanni Paolo Marana, and others.

Spis treści

1. Editor’s Introduction

Part 1. The Theory of Secularism

2. Towards a Political Theory of Secularism

3. The Idea of Immanence in Charles Taylor’s Philosophy of Religion

4. The Rationality of Secularization

Part 2. The Sources of Secularism: Rethinking Religion in Early Modernity

5. The Secularism of Spinoza and his Circle

6. Thomas Hobbes and the Secularization of Authority

7. The History and Philosophy of English Freethinking

Part 3. The Sources of Secularism: Enlightenment

8. Sources of Knowledge, Sources of Doubts: The Emergence of       Modern Religious Studies and The French Enlightenment

9. The Interlacing of Secular Implications and Sacred Discourse in the French Enlightenment: Toleration and Freedom of  Expression in the Works of Abbé Claude Yvon

10. Kant on Freedom of Thought

11. The Divine Immanence, Kant’s Religious R

ationalism, and Spinoza

Part 4. The Practice of Secularism

12. Talking to Ourselves: An Investigation into the Christian Ethics Inherent in Secularism

13. Rethinking Secularism as A Political Principle in the Middle East: From Negative to Positive Understanding and Perception of Secularism.

O autorze

Anna Tomaszewska is an assistant professor of philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland.

 

Hasse Hämäläinen is a postdoctoral researcher in the project The Enlightenment Ideas of Freedom of Thought and Conscience, and Contemporary Secularism at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland.

Blurb

This book examines the importance of the Enlightenment for understanding the secular outlook of contemporary Western societies. It shows the new ways of thinking about religion that emerged during the 17th and 18th centuries and have had a great impact on how we address problems related to religion in the public sphere today. Based on the assumption that political concepts are rooted in historical realities, this collection combines the perspective of political philosophy with the perspective of the history of ideas. Does secularism imply that individuals are not free to manifest their beliefs in public? Is secularization the same as rejecting faith in the absolute? Can there be a universal rational core in every religion? Does freedom of expression always go hand in hand with freedom of conscience? Is secularism an invention of the predominantly Christian West, which cannot be applied in other contexts, specifically that of Muslim cultures? Answers to these and related questions are sought not only in current theories and debates in political philosophy, but also in the writings of Immanuel Kant, Benedict Spinoza, Thomas Hobbes, Anthony Collins, Adriaan Koerbagh, Abbé Claude Yvon, Giovanni Paolo Marana, and others.