EVR

Empiricism vs Rationalism: The Rise of a Historiographical Narrative

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'For most of the twentieth century, Anglophone philosophers and historians held that early modern philosophy was dominated by the contrast between Descartes', Spinoza's, and Leibniz's rationalism and Locke's, Berkeley's, and Hume's empiricism.

In the light of growing scepticism surrounding this narrative, the proposed research will shed light on its history. It will determine when the narrative entered into English histories of philosophy; how it came to shape the university curriculum in Great Britain and Australasia; what roles the programmes of British Idealists and American Pragmatists played in this process; and how the standard narrative was appropriated by Anglophone philosophers in the twentieth and early twenty-first century. Unfolding at the intersection between philosophy and the history of ideas, universities, and philosophical historiography, the project will shed light on how philosophy shapes its past.

The project builds on innovative research done by the Fellow, Dr Alberto Vanzo; the convergence of interests and complementarity of expertise between the Fellow and the Scientist in Charge, Prof. Tom Sorell; and the strengths of the Host Institution, the Department of Philosophy of the University of Birmingham.

The project will result in five journal articles; an online work-in-progress workshop; a symposium and associated publication; a workshop and guide for philosophy teachers in universities and high schools; and 35 blog posts. The project will catalyze long-term collaborations by promoting the constitution of an international network of scholars, with a strong European participation. The project will achieve a wide, early dissemination of results within and beyond the scholarly community, using the blog to reach out to educated laypeople and the teacher's workshop and guide to bring the teaching of early modern philosophy in line with current scholarship. Thus, the project will consolidate and expand European excellence in research and education.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Recent research on early modern philosophy shows that while the division of studies into empiricism and rationalism is convenient, valuable philosophies and thinkers are overlooked.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Research on modern early philosophy and its teaching at the university and high school levels is traditionally dominated by a narrative based the contrast between empiricism and rationalism.

Researchers in the EU-funded project 'Empiricism vs. rationalism: The rise of a historiographical narrative' (EVR) assert that this is due to the simplicity of this narrative and its suitability for pedagogical purposes.

Demonstrating the flexibility of empiricism, EVR shows that the notion of empiricism could be easily employed by a broad spectrum of philosophers from idealists to Thomists.

However, the oversimplification of this approach means that other valuable approaches of the 17th and 18th century are left out of the curriculum.

In the http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/empiricism_etc (EVR blog) , researchers explain that professors of early modern philosophy are reacting against this elementary approach of instruction and historiographical understanding.

As an alternative, they suggest that philosophers outside of the empirical and rationalist camps are brought into curriculums, as well as little-known women philosophers.

In addition to its blog, the project is working towards the publication of several journal articles, a book chapter and papers. Additionally, project work has been presented at several conferences, discussed at lecture seminars for high school students, and inspired training for high school philosophy teachers.

EVR researchers expect their findings will spark conversations about the historiography of early modern philosophy, and bring teaching of the subject in line with current research.