Mogens Laerke
Biographic Data
| ID | 1012989 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mogens Laerke |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mogens |
| FAMILY NAME | Laerke |
| SIGNATURE | LAERKE M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Chicago |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3300-509X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 4 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Oliver Hill: An Impertinent Ass: A Puritan Mystic and Cambridge Philosopher at the Royal Society, 1677–1682
The early Royal Society was an intellectual movement with remarkably homogenous epistemological and methodological features. Despite the petty squabbles fellows occasionally engaged in, general agreement existed among them about the principles, methods, and aims of their collective enterprise. On rare occasions, however, the society was genuinely infiltrated by someone with incompatible conceptions and principles, upsetting the sober equilibrium…
Kenelm Digby's logic of common and natural notions
In this article, I take a fresh look at the logic of common and natural notions contained in the Two Treatises published in 1644 by Kenelm Digby (1603–1665). Digby's doctrine of common notions was an attempt to retrofit Aristotelianism in order to bring it out of the shadows of scholasticism and into the age of the new experimental and collaborative natural philosophy. To achieve that, he argued that natural philosophy began in the world of exper…
Who’s afraid of the early modern sceptic? A Polemical Note on Dmitri Levitin’s The Kingdom of Darkness
International audience
The Proleptic Principles of Samuel Parker
The prolific English divine Samuel Parker (1640–1688) is best known for his works on theology and politics and for his blistering attacks on non-conformity, but was also an early member of the Royal Society who wrote extensively on natural philosophy and theology. My aim in this paper is to highlight a unifying element in this diverse corpus. First, I show how Parker promoted the epistemology and experimental methods of the nascent Royal Society …
A Revolving Door: Experimental Philosophy in France
International audience
Remembering Maria Rosa Antognazza (1964–2023)
A little over a year ago, we lost one of the leading historians of philosophy of her generation, Prof. Maria Rosa Antognazza. So many in this community also lost a dear friend.Rosa, as she was know
Spinoza et la liberté de philosopher
Dans cette contribution, je reviens sur la « liberté de philosopher » que, selon le sous-titre de l'ouvrage, Spinoza se propose de défendre dans son Traité théologico-politique . Je montre notamment qu'il s'agit d'une forme complexe et positive de liberté à ne pas confondre avec la conception de la liberté d'expression et du free speech dont on parle dans le discours politique d'aujourd'hui. Je montre ainsi que la liberté de philosopher n'est pas…
Historiographies of philosophy 1800–1950
International audience
Steno and the Philosophers
International audience
Steno and the Philosophers
Steno and the Philosophers offers an account of the life and works of the Danish scientist and theologian Nicolas Steno (1638-1686). Its aim is to study the intricate relations between philosophy, theology, and the emerging sciences (anatomy, medicine and geology in particular) in the early modern Republic of Letters through the biographical prism of one of its most fascinating members. Concentrating on Steno's contributions to natural philosophy…
La controverse de grotius, hobbes et spinoza sur le jus circa sacra textes, prétextes, contextes et circonstances
Cette contribution esquisse un cadre méthodologique pour l'étude des controverses en histoire de la philosophie. Il se construit autour de quatre composants fondamentaux: textes, contextes, prétextes et circonstances. Nous montrons comment, une fois ces éléments identifiés et systématiquement distingués et distribués, une controverse est localisée et circonscrite. En outre, nous montrons comment, formellement, les controverses sont reliées entre …
Spinoza on the Eternity of the Mind
In this paper, I propose a reading of Spinoza's theory of the eternity of the mind in light of his theory of essence and existence. Opposing in particular recent Platonist readings of this theory, rejecting the dichotomy between formal essence and actual essence, upon which they mostly rely, I argue that Spinoza's conception of the eternity of the mind must be grasped in terms of different aspects of one and the same existence. I moreover suggest…
Five Figures of Folding: Deleuze on Leibniz's Monadological Metaphysics
This article is about Gilles Deleuze's book Le Pli. Leibniz et le Baroque from 1988. It shows how Deleuze's notion of folding captures some basic intuitions in Leibniz and how they relate to each other. To this purpose, I propose five figures, all referring to the same basic fold, all illustrating how the consideration of such figures allows developing central elements of Leibniz's monadology. These figures can help, I hope, alleviate some of the…
Leibniz, the Encyclopedia, and the Natural Order of Thinking
This article investigates some of the didactic aspects of Leibniz's encyclopedic project by asking how it could contribute to the development of a new intellectual ethos. Most commentators acknowledge that the encyclopedia was intimately linked to educational concerns. But they do not take sufficiently into account the implications this has for the concrete exposition of the encyclopedia, but subordinate the didactic aspect to the demonstrative o…
The Anthropological Analogy and the Constitution of Historical Perspectivism
This paper argues how an oft-repeated comparison between the historiography of philosophy and contemporary cultural anthropology, habitually invoked in order to support arguments in favor of relativist if not outright skeptical arguments about historical truth, can be put to a more constructive use. First, by spelling out the epistemological implications of some methodological intuitions most acutely formulated by anthropologists, it sketches out…
Philosophy and Its History: Aims and Methods in the Study of Early Modern Philosophy
"This volume collects contributions from leading scholars of early modern philosophy from a wide variety of philosophical and geographic backgrounds. The distinguished contributors offer very different, competing approaches to the history of philosophy. Many chapters articulate new, detailed methods of doing history of philosophy. These present conflicting visions of the history of philosophy as an autonomous sub-discipline of professional philos…
The Use of Censorship in the Enlightenment
The ambition is of this volume to study the role censorship played in the intellectual culture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, how it was implemented, and how it affected the development philosophy and literary writing. It contains contributions by intellectual historians, philosophers and literary theorists. The first section studies how Enlightenment thinkers were submitted to censorship, in particular the German Spinozists, Pierre…
The use of censorship in the Enlightenment
Use of Censorship in the Enlightenment
Possibility, Agency and Individuality in Leibniz's MetaphysicsOhad Nachtomy Collection «The New Synthese Historical Library» Dordrecht, Springer, 2007, 268 p
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Leibniz selon les Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement humainFrançois Duchesneau et Jérémie Griard Collection «Analytiques» Paris/Montréal, Vrin/Bellarmin, 2006, 352 p
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Leibniz, la censure et la libre pensée
Dans cet article, nous analysons les textes de G. W. Leibniz qui portent sur la censure et la liberté d'expression, notamment par rapport aux auteurs qu'il qualifie de « libertins » ou d'« athées ». Nous explorons le dispositif théorique qu'il propose pour déterminer les limites justes entre la censure et la liberté de pensée; dispositif qui permet, dans chaque cas, de choisir entre la réfutation savante et la suppression autoritaire des textes e…
Jus Circa Sacra: Elements of Theological Politics in 17th Century Rationalism: From Hobbes and Spinoza to Leibniz
The theologico-political reflection in 17th Century rationalism was marked by a long experience of unresoluble religious division and by the dissociation of speculative theology and natural philosophy caused by the advance of the natural sciences. One of the main theological problems discussed in philosophy was that of the judge of controversies, i.e. the problem of the interpretative authority in religion closely linked to the key question conce…
Five Figures of Folding: Deleuze on Leibniz's Monadological Metaphysics
This article is about Gilles Deleuze's book Le Pli. Leibniz et le Baroque from 1988. It shows how Deleuze's notion of folding captures some basic intuitions in Leibniz and how they relate to each other. To this purpose, I propose five figures, all referring to the same basic fold, all illustrating how the consideration of such figures allows developing central elements of Leibniz's monadology. These figures can help, I hope, alleviate some of the…
The Proleptic Principles of Samuel Parker
The prolific English divine Samuel Parker (1640–1688) is best known for his works on theology and politics and for his blistering attacks on non-conformity, but was also an early member of the Royal Society who wrote extensively on natural philosophy and theology. My aim in this paper is to highlight a unifying element in this diverse corpus. First, I show how Parker promoted the epistemology and experimental methods of the nascent Royal Society …
Spinoza on the Eternity of the Mind
In this paper, I propose a reading of Spinoza's theory of the eternity of the mind in light of his theory of essence and existence. Opposing in particular recent Platonist readings of this theory, rejecting the dichotomy between formal essence and actual essence, upon which they mostly rely, I argue that Spinoza's conception of the eternity of the mind must be grasped in terms of different aspects of one and the same existence. I moreover suggest…
Leibniz, the Encyclopedia, and the Natural Order of Thinking
This article investigates some of the didactic aspects of Leibniz's encyclopedic project by asking how it could contribute to the development of a new intellectual ethos. Most commentators acknowledge that the encyclopedia was intimately linked to educational concerns. But they do not take sufficiently into account the implications this has for the concrete exposition of the encyclopedia, but subordinate the didactic aspect to the demonstrative o…
Jus Circa Sacra: Elements of Theological Politics in 17th Century Rationalism: From Hobbes and Spinoza to Leibniz
The theologico-political reflection in 17th Century rationalism was marked by a long experience of unresoluble religious division and by the dissociation of speculative theology and natural philosophy caused by the advance of the natural sciences. One of the main theological problems discussed in philosophy was that of the judge of controversies, i.e. the problem of the interpretative authority in religion closely linked to the key question conce…
Jus Circa Sacra: Elements of Theological Politics in 17th Century Rationalism: From Hobbes and Spinoza to Leibniz
The theologico-political reflection in 17th Century rationalism was marked by a long experience of unresoluble religious division and by the dissociation of speculative theology and natural philosophy caused by the advance of the natural sciences. One of the main theological problems discussed in philosophy was that of the judge of controversies, i.e. the problem of the interpretative authority in religion closely linked to the key question conce…
Leibniz, la censure et la libre pensée
Dans cet article, nous analysons les textes de G. W. Leibniz qui portent sur la censure et la liberté d'expression, notamment par rapport aux auteurs qu'il qualifie de « libertins » ou d'« athées ». Nous explorons le dispositif théorique qu'il propose pour déterminer les limites justes entre la censure et la liberté de pensée; dispositif qui permet, dans chaque cas, de choisir entre la réfutation savante et la suppression autoritaire des textes e…
Possibility, Agency and Individuality in Leibniz's MetaphysicsOhad Nachtomy Collection «The New Synthese Historical Library» Dordrecht, Springer, 2007, 268 p
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Leibniz selon les Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement humainFrançois Duchesneau et Jérémie Griard Collection «Analytiques» Paris/Montréal, Vrin/Bellarmin, 2006, 352 p
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Use of Censorship in the Enlightenment
The ambition is of this volume to study the role censorship played in the intellectual culture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, how it was implemented, and how it affected the development philosophy and literary writing. It contains contributions by intellectual historians, philosophers and literary theorists. The first section studies how Enlightenment thinkers were submitted to censorship, in particular the German Spinozists, Pierre…
The use of censorship in the Enlightenment
Use of Censorship in the Enlightenment
The Anthropological Analogy and the Constitution of Historical Perspectivism
This paper argues how an oft-repeated comparison between the historiography of philosophy and contemporary cultural anthropology, habitually invoked in order to support arguments in favor of relativist if not outright skeptical arguments about historical truth, can be put to a more constructive use. First, by spelling out the epistemological implications of some methodological intuitions most acutely formulated by anthropologists, it sketches out…
Philosophy and Its History: Aims and Methods in the Study of Early Modern Philosophy
"This volume collects contributions from leading scholars of early modern philosophy from a wide variety of philosophical and geographic backgrounds. The distinguished contributors offer very different, competing approaches to the history of philosophy. Many chapters articulate new, detailed methods of doing history of philosophy. These present conflicting visions of the history of philosophy as an autonomous sub-discipline of professional philos…
Leibniz, the Encyclopedia, and the Natural Order of Thinking
This article investigates some of the didactic aspects of Leibniz's encyclopedic project by asking how it could contribute to the development of a new intellectual ethos. Most commentators acknowledge that the encyclopedia was intimately linked to educational concerns. But they do not take sufficiently into account the implications this has for the concrete exposition of the encyclopedia, but subordinate the didactic aspect to the demonstrative o…
Five Figures of Folding: Deleuze on Leibniz's Monadological Metaphysics
This article is about Gilles Deleuze's book Le Pli. Leibniz et le Baroque from 1988. It shows how Deleuze's notion of folding captures some basic intuitions in Leibniz and how they relate to each other. To this purpose, I propose five figures, all referring to the same basic fold, all illustrating how the consideration of such figures allows developing central elements of Leibniz's monadology. These figures can help, I hope, alleviate some of the…
La controverse de grotius, hobbes et spinoza sur le jus circa sacra textes, prétextes, contextes et circonstances
Cette contribution esquisse un cadre méthodologique pour l'étude des controverses en histoire de la philosophie. Il se construit autour de quatre composants fondamentaux: textes, contextes, prétextes et circonstances. Nous montrons comment, une fois ces éléments identifiés et systématiquement distingués et distribués, une controverse est localisée et circonscrite. En outre, nous montrons comment, formellement, les controverses sont reliées entre …
Spinoza on the Eternity of the Mind
In this paper, I propose a reading of Spinoza's theory of the eternity of the mind in light of his theory of essence and existence. Opposing in particular recent Platonist readings of this theory, rejecting the dichotomy between formal essence and actual essence, upon which they mostly rely, I argue that Spinoza's conception of the eternity of the mind must be grasped in terms of different aspects of one and the same existence. I moreover suggest…
Steno and the Philosophers
International audience
Steno and the Philosophers
Steno and the Philosophers offers an account of the life and works of the Danish scientist and theologian Nicolas Steno (1638-1686). Its aim is to study the intricate relations between philosophy, theology, and the emerging sciences (anatomy, medicine and geology in particular) in the early modern Republic of Letters through the biographical prism of one of its most fascinating members. Concentrating on Steno's contributions to natural philosophy…
Historiographies of philosophy 1800–1950
International audience
Spinoza et la liberté de philosopher
Dans cette contribution, je reviens sur la « liberté de philosopher » que, selon le sous-titre de l'ouvrage, Spinoza se propose de défendre dans son Traité théologico-politique . Je montre notamment qu'il s'agit d'une forme complexe et positive de liberté à ne pas confondre avec la conception de la liberté d'expression et du free speech dont on parle dans le discours politique d'aujourd'hui. Je montre ainsi que la liberté de philosopher n'est pas…
Remembering Maria Rosa Antognazza (1964–2023)
A little over a year ago, we lost one of the leading historians of philosophy of her generation, Prof. Maria Rosa Antognazza. So many in this community also lost a dear friend.Rosa, as she was know
Oliver Hill: An Impertinent Ass: A Puritan Mystic and Cambridge Philosopher at the Royal Society, 1677–1682
The early Royal Society was an intellectual movement with remarkably homogenous epistemological and methodological features. Despite the petty squabbles fellows occasionally engaged in, general agreement existed among them about the principles, methods, and aims of their collective enterprise. On rare occasions, however, the society was genuinely infiltrated by someone with incompatible conceptions and principles, upsetting the sober equilibrium…
Kenelm Digby's logic of common and natural notions
In this article, I take a fresh look at the logic of common and natural notions contained in the Two Treatises published in 1644 by Kenelm Digby (1603–1665). Digby's doctrine of common notions was an attempt to retrofit Aristotelianism in order to bring it out of the shadows of scholasticism and into the age of the new experimental and collaborative natural philosophy. To achieve that, he argued that natural philosophy began in the world of exper…
Who’s afraid of the early modern sceptic? A Polemical Note on Dmitri Levitin’s The Kingdom of Darkness
International audience
The Proleptic Principles of Samuel Parker
The prolific English divine Samuel Parker (1640–1688) is best known for his works on theology and politics and for his blistering attacks on non-conformity, but was also an early member of the Royal Society who wrote extensively on natural philosophy and theology. My aim in this paper is to highlight a unifying element in this diverse corpus. First, I show how Parker promoted the epistemology and experimental methods of the nascent Royal Society …
A Revolving Door: Experimental Philosophy in France
International audience
Philosophy (18 works) · Epistemology (12 works) · Historical Philosophy and Science (9 works) · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought (9 works) · History (7 works) · Art (6 works) · Classical Philosophy and Thought (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Theology (6 works)