Masterclass: The Autonomy of Reason in the Cosmological Debates of the Enlightenment

Venue: ICUB Humanities, Conference Room; 1 Dimitrie Brandza Str., Bucharest

When: 2 November 2023, 10 am – 4 pm

Invited speaker: Stephen Howard (Leuven University)

1. The Plurality of Worlds According to Leibniz, the Wolffian School and Pietists
2. The Plurality of Worlds According to Kant
3. Lambert on the Inhabitants of Other Planets

Cosmology was one of the fields within which Enlightenment battles over the autonomy of reason took place. This masterclass will consider these battles, with particular attention to the question of the number and nature of worlds. Leibniz conceived of a multiplicity of worlds in numerous respects: the infinite multiplicity of possible worlds, which he took to counter Spinozist necessitarianism; the kingdoms of nature and grace; and the orders of efficient and final causation. Wolff and his followers and opponents proposed to amend Leibniz’s views on possible and actual worlds in various ways. Kant and Lambert built on the ideas of these figures, developing original positions on the role of reason in the cosmos, whether through teleological relations or a separate intelligible/moral world.

The masterclass is organized by Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet and Sorana Corneanu within the research project Between Truth and Freedom: Enlightenment Answers to ‘Thinking for Oneself’ (105/2021; funded by UEFISCDI).