This study provides commentary on Mizler's Dissertatio and Anfangs-Gründe des General Basses. Chapter V is an annotated guide to his Neu eröffnete musikalische Bibliothek, one of the earliest German music periodicals. Translations of Mizler's biography in Mattheson's Grundlage einer Ehrenpforte and selected passages of Mizler's Der musikalischer Staarstecher contribute a sampling of the critical polemics among Mizler, Mattheson, and Scheibe. As a proponent of the Aufklärung, Mizler was influenced by Leibnitz, Thomasius, and Wolff. Though his attempts to apply mechanistic principles to music were rejected during his time, his founding of a society of musical sciences, which included J. S. Bach, Telemann, Handel, and C. H. Graun as members, and his efforts to establish music as a scholarly discipline deserve recognition.

Generally acclaimed as the greatest philosopher of the Enlightenment, David Hume has been, nevertheless, a problem for Enlightenment historians. In terms of the Enlightenment's own standards of empiricism and demonstrable philosophical tenets, Hume's is by far the most "legitimate" philosophy of the age, yet it is almost diametrically opposed to the traditional historical characterization of the Enlightenment. Consequently, historians must re-assess the empirical character of the Enlightenment, acknowledging it as yet another Age of Faith rather than science (as Becker contends), or acknowledge Hume's as the most valid Enlightenment philosophy. Such a re-assessment and study of Hume's conclusions would dramatically alter Enlightenment histories and provide meaningful insights into the actual Enlightenment legacy regarding modern man and his society.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:40:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mariel Rosauro Zasso.pdf: 735888 bytes, checksum: b4e98a2bb7429588cbba159468fa5130 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-05 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This essay talks about theoretical devices with which we can operate relations of sympathy in clinical encounters. We propose to highlight the complexity of the issue through a brief overview of what happened with the idea of sympathy throughout the history of Western thought. From the viewpoint of conceptual connections, we rely especially to David Hume, for whom, in the eighteenth century, the issue that influences the theme of sympathy is that of relations between humans. Because sympathy is a passion, and like all passion, in Hume, is characterized by its partiality, the difficulty to consider, in the social point of view, is the sympathy's intensity reduccion as it extends. A sympathy's clinic is thematized in resonance with this problem, discussed with help of Gilles Deleuze's book Empirisme et subjectivité (1953). This clinical practice should promote the intensification of sympathy without recreate the relational limitation that it suffers from restricted groups, like family, and be able to establish itself as a nomadic place of relations of sympathy's extent, in favor of an affirmation of differential life / Esta dissertação discorre acerca de dispositivos teóricos com os quais podemos operar relações de simpatia em encontros clínicos. Propomonos a evidenciar a complexidade do tema através de um breve apanhado daquilo que se passou com a idéia de simpatia ao longo da história do pensamento ocidental. Do ponto de vista das conexões conceituais, recorremos especialmente a David Hume, para quem, no séc XVIII, a problemática que influencia o tema da simpatia é o das relações entre os humanos. Como a simpatia é uma paixão, e como toda paixão, em Hume, se caracteriza por sua parcialidade, a dificuldade a ser levada em conta, do ponto de vista social, é a redução da intensidade da simpatia à medida que ela se estende. Uma clínica da simpatia é tematizada em ressonância com esse problema, discutido com ajuda do livro de Gilles Deleuze (19251995) Empirisme et subjectivité, de 1953. Tal clinicar deve possibilitar a intensificação da simpatia sem recriar a limitação relacional que ela sofre em grupos restritos, como a família; e ser capaz de constituirse como lugar nômade de uma extensão das relações de simpatia, em favor de uma afirmação diferencial da vida

La thèse traite du débat sur l'origine et la nature du polythéisme qui anima la pensée française au XVIIIe siècle. Depuis le début du siècle, ce débat commence à déborder le périmètre théologique auquel il se limitait auparavant. Le polythéisme cesse d’être une question d’exégèse scripturaire et devient un problème historique, puis philosophique. La thèse a pour objet d'éclaircir les différentes étapes de cette évolution. On montre en particulier que le remplacement progressif du modèle du monothéisme originel par celui du polythéisme primitif provoque un changement du statut de la question : d'enquête principalement antiquaire sur un sujet spécifique, elle devient une réflexion philosophique sur l'origine et la nature de la croyance religieuse tout court. La première des deux parties de la thèse est consacrée aux recherches sur les religions païennes des érudits, des antiquaires et des historiens : on y examine les principales théories sur l'origine du paganisme nées dans ce contexte (évhémérisme, allégorisme, théories de l'origine de l'idolâtrie des arts visuels et des signes de l'écriture) afin de montrer qu'elles préparèrent la réflexion des philosophes, en proposant un nouveau regard historique sur le polythéisme. La deuxième partie porte sur les aspects plus proprement philosophiques du débat ; l'attention est concentrée sur les deux figures-clés de Pierre Bayle et de David Hume et sur deux axes théoriques principaux : un axe logique ou gnoséologique, touchant à ce que signifie penser la divinité en tant que plurielle ; et un axe anthropologique ou psychologique sur l'origine de la croyance en plusieurs dieux. / The subject of this thesis is the debate on the origin and nature of polytheism, which took place in France in the Eighteenth century. From the beginning of the century, this debate started to unfold outside of the theological frame within which it had been confined earlier. Polytheism stopped being an issue of biblical exegesis to become a question of historical and then philosophical nature. This thesis aims to shed light on the steps of this change. In particular, it is shown that the gradual substitution of the orthodox model of original pure monotheism with that one of primitive polytheism changed the nature of the issue: from a specific question mainly of antiquarians' interest, it became a philosophical inquiry on the origin and nature of religious belief in general. The first part of the thesis is about the researches on pagan religions conducted by antiquarians and historians: the main theories on the origin of paganism which arose in this context are examined (Euhemerism, allegorism, theories of the origin of idolatry from visual arts and writing signs), aiming to show that these theories paved the way to the reflection of philosophers, proposing a new historical approach to polytheism. The second part of the thesis deals with more strictly philosophical aspects of the debate, focusing on two key figures ‒ Pierre Bayle and David Hume ‒ and on two fundamental theoretical lines: a logical or gnoseological one, about what it means to conceive divinity as multiple; and an anthropological or psychological one, on the origin of the belief in several divinities.

As a practical moralist and political theorist concerned with reforming a factious and religious public, Hume recommends a particular outlook that is fit for civilized society. In this dissertation, I present Hume as a contributor to the post-scholastic contest of philosophical systems, as an innovative thinker who revised the modern Epicurean outlook of Hobbes and Mandeville and challenged both the austere Christian Stoicism of Francis Hutcheson and the Platonic rationalism of Samuel Clarke. I argue that the political mentality that Hume presented as suitable for sustaining the prevailing social order constitutes one more step in the development of the modern Epicurean mentality. This mentality, moreover, is not strictly political, but incorporates metaphysical, epistemological, and moral judgments that, in light of the contest of systems, are rightly regarded as a restatement of modern Epicurean positions. Hume, in accord with the principles of the new political science, sought to protect the gains of civilization from the vestiges of barbarism, which, for Hume, were manifested in the superstitious tribalism of religionists and political partisans. Hume replaces Christian, Whig, and Tory myths—i.e. grand narratives situating human beings as moral and political subjects—with the Epicurean myth of the progress of human society. The end of political society, from this perspective, is neither piety nor moral improvement, but prosperity, ease, and comfort, which, together, serve as the measure of progress and the reason for popular consent to the exercise of public political authority. This mentality, I argue, sheds light on the normative dimensions of Hume’s liberal political science.

No description available.

Les travaux de Tversky et Kahneman à propos du raisonnement probabiliste ont déclenché un débat qui s'est transposé aux normes du raisonnement en général. Les tentatives de naturalisation de ces normes entreprises par les psychologues évolutionnistes (en particulier Gigerenzer) avaient comme objectif d'expliquer les normes en fonction du contexte pour lequel elles avaient évolué. Nous présentons les travaux de Tversky et Kahneman ainsi que leur interprétation et celle de la psychologie évolutionniste. Par contre, un problème majeur émerge de ces tentatives. Considérer les normes dans leur adéquation à un contexte particulier a comme conséquence de relativiser ces normes. Or, nous souhaitons, lorsque nous entreprenons une étude normative, expliquer aussi les normes générales du raisonnement et conserver cet aspect de généralité. Il est possible d'expliquer les normes générales du raisonnement à l'intérieur d'un modèle naturaliste. Stanovich réalise cette explication à l'aide de la théorie des mèmes. Nous présentons les arguments de Stanovich. Nous remarquons, ensuite, que malgré la justesse des arguments de Stanovich un second problème demeure en suspens. Ce problème peut être appelé le problème du processus motivationnel qui pousse les individus à accepter et à intégrer les normes générales du raisonnement. Nous faisons alors l'hypothèse selon laquelle il peut être pertinent de regarder du côté de l'histoire de la philosophie, et plus précisément de David Hume, pour trouver des pistes de solution au problème de la motivation. Dans un premier temps nous revoyons les lignes directrices de la théorie de l'esprit et de la croyance de Hume. Nous présentons ensuite sa théorie normative naturaliste et terminons en dressant un tableau comparatif entre Hume et les théories contemporaines. Si nous acceptons de prendre en considération le fait que l'entreprise philosophique de Hume se déploie dans un contexte historique et philosophique différent, nous pouvons accepter que les pistes de solutions qu'il avance demeurent pertinentes. Cette thèse peut être vue comme un complément au débat contemporain. Les deux idées principales de cette tentative de solution sont 1) l'importance des sentiments dans le processus de formation de la croyance (incluant les croyances à propos des normes générales du raisonnement) et 2) la volonté naturelle de s'adapter à notre environnement social, ce qui nous pousse parfois à adopter un point de vue général afin d'éviter les conflits. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : normativité, raisonnement, raisonnement probabiliste, motivation, naturalisme, Hume.

No description available.

No description available.

During the first half of the XVIIIth century in Russia, deep social and cultural changes led to a chaotic linguistic situation. The Russian scholar Michail Lomonosov played a key role in the grammatical and lexical organization of the Russian literary language around the middle of the century. His contributions are reviewed and their importance analyzed in the present thesis. / Chapter One provides an analysis of the linguistic situation during the first half of the XVIIIth century. The role and the functions of different linguistic elements are examined, including West European lexical borrowings, the native Russian, the Church Slavonic, and their mutual interactions. / Chapters two and three analyze M. Lomonosov's role in the standardization of Russian grammar and vocabulary by examining his two major philological works: the "Rossiaeiskaeiia Grammatika" and the article "Predislovie o polbze knig tserkovnikh v rossiiskom yazike." / Although Lomonosov's merit is widely acknowledged among scholars, the importance of his stylistic theory has been challenged lately. In Chapter Four, Lomonosov's linguistic contributions to the development of the modern Russian literary language are weighed and assessed against these critical arguments.