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110Bentham and Helvétius on the Morality of the Desire for EsteemRivista di Filosofia 113 (2): 341-360. 2022.The present article draws attention to some specific similarities between Helvétius and Bentham in their treatments of the morality of the desire for esteem. These similarities can be observed in three fields: (1) Helvétius and Bentham integrate the desire for esteem into more general accounts of how sensible interest motivates human action; (2) they analyse various everyday situations in which the desire for esteems has consequences that are detrimental for social life; and (3) they emphasize r…Read more
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Nicolaus Taurellus on Vegetative Powers and the Question of Substance MonismIn Fabrizio Baldassarri & Andreas Blank (eds.), Vegetative Powers: The Roots of Life in Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Natural Philosophy, Springer. 2021.
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98Complaisance and the Question of Autonomy in the French Women Moralists, 1650–1710In Sandrine Berges & Alberto L. Siani (eds.), Women Philosophers on Autonomy: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Routledge. 2018.
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323Self-Deception and Illusions of Esteem: Contextualizing Du Châtelet’s ChallengeIn Ruth Edith Hagengruber (ed.), Époque Émilienne. Philosophy and Science in the Age of Émilie Du Châtelet (1706–1749).. pp. 391-410. 2022.This article discusses Du Châtelet’s challenging claim that entertaining illusions, especially illusions of being esteemed by posterity, is conducive to happiness. It does so by taking a contextualizing approach, contrasting her views with the views on illusions and happiness in Julien Offray de La Mettrie and Bernard de Fontenelle. I will argue for three claims: (1) Du Châtelet’s view that illusions are akin to perceptions that are favorable to us problematically generalizes La Mettrie’s insigh…Read more
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175The Morality of Self-Acceptance. La Rochefoucauld and the Augustinian ChallengeEarly Modern French Studies 45 (1): 131-149. 2023.This article argues that the reception of Augustinian ideas in Pascal and Nicole can be used to clarify what is distinctive in La Rochefoucauld’s treatment of self-relations. La Rochefoucauld does not share the Augustinian dichotomy between self-love at the price of forgetting God and love of God at the price of self-contempt that is prominent in both Pascal and Nicole. Rather, La Rochefoucauld develops a conception of an attitude towards the self that could be described as self-acceptance. As h…Read more
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86Cesalpino on Sensitive Powers and the Question of Divine ImmanenceIn Fabrizio Baldassarri & Craig Martin (eds.), Andrea Cesalpino and Renaissance Aristotelianism, Bloomsbury. pp. 69-87. 2023.Nicolaus Taurellus (1547-1606) developed a detailed critique of Cesalpino’s cardiocentric physiology, challenging the causal roles that Cesalpino ascribed to the heart, blood, vital spirits and vital heat in the origin of sensitive powers. He also rejected Cesalpino’s view that a cardiocentric physiology of sensation could be used as an analogy to explain in what sense the universe could be understood as being animated. The central point of Taurellus’s critique is that Cesalpino’s treatment of v…Read more
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5Protestant Hermeneutics and the Persistence of Moral Meanings in Early Modern Natural HistoriesPerspectives on Science. forthcoming.Peter Harrison explains the disappearance of symbolic meanings of animals from seventeenth-century works in natural history through what he calls the “literalist mentality of the reformers.” By contrast, the present article argues in favor of a different understanding of the connection between hermeneutics and Protestant natural history. Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, Johannes Brenz, Johannes Oecolampadius, and Jean Calvin continued to assign moral meanings to natural particulars, and moral…Read more
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335Marquard Freher and the presumption of goodness in legal humanismHistory of European Ideas 49 (3): 491-505. 2023.One of the most detailed early modern discussions of the morality of esteem can be found in the work of the reformed jurist and historian Marquard Freher (1565–1614). Since the question of how much esteem others deserve is fraught with a high degree of uncertainty, Freher relied on the work of other legal humanists, who discussed questions of esteem from the perspective of arguments from the presumption of goodness. The humanist approach to the presumption of goodness integrated considerations a…Read more
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1Wittgenstein on Colors and Internal Relations, 1930–1932In Christian Kanzian (ed.), Cultures. Conflict - Analysis - Dialogue: Proceedings of the 29th International Ludwig Wittgenstein-Symposium in Kirchberg, Austria, Walter De Gruyter. pp. 21-32. 2007.
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165Reflexion und Leibniz’ Theorie der GerechtigkeitIn Otto Neumaier (ed.), Gerechtigkeit: Auf der Suche nach einem Gleichgewicht, De Gruyter. pp. 299-316. 2005.
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64Review of Marine Picon, Normes et objets du savoir dans les premiers essais leibnitiens. (review)Studia Leibnitiana 52 (1-2): 268-269. 2020.
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54Review of Riccarda Suitner, Die philosophischen Totengespräche der Frühaufklärung (review)Renaissance Quarterly 71 774-776. 2018.
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Review of Stuart Brown and N. J. Fox, Historical Dictionary of Leibniz’s Philosophy (review)Philosophy in Review 27 100-102. 2007.
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87Review of Irene Dingel, Michael Kempe and Wenchao Li (eds.), Leibniz in Mainz. Europäische Dimensionen der Mainzer Wirkungsperiode (review)Studia Leibnitiana 51 141-143. 2019.
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132Julius Caesar Scaliger on Plant Generation and the Question of Species ConstancyEarly Science and Medicine 15 (2): 266-286. 2010.
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51Review of Nicolaus Taurellus, Philosophiae triumphus, hoc est, Metaphysica philosophandi methodus (review)Renaissance Quarterly 66 1052-1053. 2013.
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Leibniz, Spinoza y el Intelecto AgenteIn Leticia Cabanas and Oscar M. Esquisabel (ed.), Leibniz frente a Spinoza. Una interpretacíon panorámica, Editorial Comares. 2014.
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108Twin-Consciousnesses and the Identity of Indiscernibles in Leibniz’s Nouveaux EssaisIn François Duchesneau and Jérémie Griard (ed.), Leibniz selon les Nouveaux essais sur l’entendement humain. pp. 189-202. 2006.
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395The Analysis of Reflection and Leibniz’s Early Response to SpinozaIn Mark Kulstad, Mogens Laerke & David Snyder (eds.), The philosophy of the young Leibniz, Steiner. pp. 161-175. 2009.
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79Jean Fernel on Divine Immanence and the Origin of Simple FormsIn Vlad Alexandrescu & Robert Theis (eds.), Nature et Surnaturel: Philosophies de la Nature et Métaphysique aux XVIe-XVIIIe siècles, Georg Olms Verlag. pp. 9-21. 2010.
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119Sennert and Leibniz on Animate AtomsIn J. E. H. Smith & Ohad Nachtomy (eds.), Machines of Nature and Corporeal Substances in Leibniz, Springer. pp. 115-130. 2011.
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98Aquinas and Soto on Derogatory Judgement and Noncomparative JusticeHistory of Philosophy Quarterly 29 (4): 411-427. 2012.
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139Presumption and Leibniz’s Metaphysics of ActionIn Adrian Nita (ed.), Leibniz’s Metaphysics and Adoption of Substantial Forms: Between Continuity and Transformation, Springer. pp. 89-106. 2015.
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114Material Causes and Incomplete Entities in Gallego de la Serna’s Theory of Animal GenerationIn Ohad Nachtomy & Justin E. H. Smith (eds.), The Life Sciences in Early Modern Philosophy, Oup Usa. 2014.This article examines some aspects of the natural philosophy of Juan Gallego de la Serna, royal physician to the Spanish kings Philip III and Philip IV. In his account of animal generation, Gallego criticizes widely accepted views: (1) the view that animal seeds are animated, and (2) the alternative view that animal seeds, even if not animated, possess active potencies sufficient for the development of animal souls. According to his view, animal seeds are purely material beings. This, of course,…Read more
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92Rezension von Martin Mulsow und Asaph Ben-Tov (eds), Knowledge and Profanation (review)Quellen Und Forschungen Aus Italienischen Archiven Und Bibliotheken 102 569-570. 2022.
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125Helvétius and his Critics: Esteem, Benevolence and the Question of the Diminution of the IndividualHistoria Philosophica 20 (1): 193-204. 2022.How persuasive are Rousseau’s and Diderot’s objections against Helvétius’s view that it is always interest that guides our esteem? Against Helvétius’s view that we always esteem ourselves in others, Rousseau objects that we can esteem the ideas that we recognize to be superior to our own ideas; against Helvétius’s idea that particu-lar societies and nations can only esteem ideas that are useful for them, Diderot objects that we can experience and esteem the feeling of universal benevolence. Howe…Read more
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107Jacob Schegk on Plants, Medicaments, and the Question of EmergenceIn Antonio Clericuzio, Paolo Pecere & Charles Wolfe (eds.), Mechanism, Life and Mind in Modern Philosophy. pp. 27-47. 2022.The view that living beings as well as plant-based medicaments possess causal properties that are caused by the causal properties of their constituents, without being reducible to the combination of the causal properties of these constituents goes back to ancient thinkers such as Alexander of Aphrodisias and Johannes Philoponus. In the early modern period, this view was not only criticized by natural philosophers taking a reductionist stance; it was also criticized by Neo-Platonic thinkers such …Read more
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104Self-Deception and Illusions of Esteem: Contextualizing Du Châtelet’s ChallengeIn Ruth Edith Hagengruber (ed.), Époque Émilienne. Philosophy, Science and Culture in the Age of Émilie Du Châtelet. pp. 391-410. 2022.This article discusses Du Châtelet’s challenging claim that entertaining illusions, especially illusions of being esteemed by posterity, is conducive to happiness. It does so by taking a contextualizing approach, contrasting her views with some Epicurean aspects of the views on illusions and happiness in Bernard de Fontenelle and Julien Offray de La Mettrie. I will argue for three claims: (1) Du Châtelet’s comparison between self-related illusions and illusions in the theater is vulnerable to ob…Read more
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80Review of Girolamo Fracastoro, De sympathia et antipathia rerum (review)Renaissance Quarterly 62 996-998. 2009.
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Andreas Blank
Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt
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Alpen-Adria Universität KlagenfurtResearcher
Areas of Specialization
History of Western Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
History of Western Philosophy |
20th Century Philosophy |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |