Descartes among the Scholastics takes the position that philosophical systems cannot be studied adequately apart from their intellectual context: philosophers accept, modify, or reject doctrines whose meaning and significance are given in a particular culture. Thus, the volume treats Cartesian philosophy as a reaction against, as well as an indebtedness to, scholastic philosophy and touches on many topics shared by Cartesian and late scholastic philosophy: matter and form, causation, infinity, place, time, void, and motion; the substance of the heavens; principles of metaphysics (such...

For more than two centuries in which Catholicism was illegal in Scotland, the Scots Colleges abroad operated as a sixth Scottish university. During this time the university's alumni, individually and collectively, helped to ensure the survival of Catholicism in Scotland through political and military activity as well as missionary work. Earlier scholarship has treated the colleges individually and overlooked the degree to which the university corpus formed coherent networks which, over two centuries, made significant contributions to greater European cultural and intellectual movements....

In early modern Europe, fundamental geographical as well as religious certainties became unstable. At the intersection of the two stood sacred geography. This book examines the scope and content of this early modern scholarly genre, which engaged many of Europe's leading scholars. On the one hand, 'geographia sacra' is analyzed in the context of antiquarian scholarship. Equipped with newly-developed sophisticated tools, scholars compiled, measured, and meticulously documented biblical and ecclesiastical space. On the other hand, this study argues, 'geographia sacra' was never detached from...

Whereas nineteenth-century university jubilees traditionally led to the writing of histories that celebrated an individual university, in this volume they have inspired instead a stimulating comparative approach that studies jubilees themselves across Northern Europe. Starting from the bicentenary of Helsinki University in 1840 and finishing with the opening of the University of Iceland in 1911, this book focuses on the importance of these jubilees for the development of Scandinavist ideas and increasing cultural and scientific cooperation between the Nordic countries. Can these jubilees be...

Treatments of the reception of Darwinism have focused on Western Europe and North America. This book turns to Argentina in the second half of the nineteenth century. Having hosted Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle, Argentina had a claim to being the cradle of Darwinism. Such claims, together with other cultural currents placed the appropriation or rejection of Darwinism at the center of the struggle to articulate the national identity of the emerging Argentine Republic. Two chapters of original historiography are followed by eight chapters of new English translations of primary sources...

Matter and form have been fundamental principles in natural science since Greek Antiquity and their apparent rejection during the seventeenth century typically has been described as a precursor to the emergence of modern science. This volume reconsiders the fate of these principles and the complex history of their reception. By analyzing work being done in physics, chemistry, theology, physiology, psychology, and metaphysics, and by considering questions about change, identity, and causation, the contributors show precisely how matter and form entered into early modern science and...

In Studies on Early Modern Aristotelianism Paul Richard Blum shows that Aristotle's thought remained the touchstone of modern philosophy; for it was the philosophy taught at universities. The concept of philosophy at Jesuit schools forms the first part of this book. Their impact on the sciences and mathematics in combination with Renaissance ideas of nature is the topic of the second part. The transformation of Aristotelian metaphysics and theology under the influence of the Renaissance is the third area of this book. Surprising continuity from the late Middle Ages into modernity and...

This book offers a fresh interpretation of a series of ground-breaking reforms introduced at the University of Oxford in the first half of the nineteenth century. Innovations such as competitive examination, a uniform syllabus and a broad range of degree subjects are often seen as products of the reforming zeal of early nineteenth-century Britain. By contrast, this book argues that many such developments are more accurately understood as attempts by senior university members and government officials to respond to the challenge posed by a new generation of confident, politically-aware students...

In Failure of American and Soviet Cultural Imperialism in German Universities, 1945-1990 Natalia Tsvetkova describes the American and Soviet policies in German universities during the Cold War. In both parts of divided Germany the conservative professorate resisted both the American and Soviet policies of reforms in universities. Whether these policies can be considered cases of cultural imperialism will be discussed in this book. As well as how and why both American and Soviet policies of the transformation of German universities eventually failed.