No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
John Austin SJ (1717–84), The First Irish Catholic Cartesian?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2020
Abstract
Early-Modern Irish Catholics exiled on the European continent are known to have often held prominent academic positions in various important colleges and universities. This paper investigates the hitherto unknown Scholastic legacy of the Dublin-born Jesuit John Austin (1717–84), a famous Irish educator who started his career teaching philosophy at the Jesuit college of Rheims in 1746–47, before returning to the country of his birth as part of the Irish Mission. These manuscript lecture notes provides us first-hand knowledge about the content of French Jesuit education in the middle of the eighteenth century, which does not correspond to its classical reputation of ‘Aristotelian’ scholasticism opposed to philosophical novelties. While stitching to a traditional way of teaching, Austin introduces positively elements from Descartes, Malebranche, Locke and Newton into the curriculum. The present paper focuses on his conception of philosophical certitude (certitudo), which he considered a necessary condition for the possibility of philosophical knowledge.
- Type
- Papers
- Information
- Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 88: Irish Philosophy in the Age of Berkeley , October 2020 , pp. 239 - 271
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 2020
References
Ariew, Roger, ‘Damned if you do: Cartesians and Censorship, 1663–1706’, Perspectives on Science 2 (1994), 255–274Google Scholar
Ariew, Roger, ‘Bourdin and the Seventh Objections’, in: Descartes and His Contemporaries: Meditations, Objections, and Replies, ed. Ariew, Roger and Grene, Marjorie, (The University of Chicago Press, 1995), 208–225.Google Scholar
Ariew, Roger, Descartes and the Last Scholastics (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1999).Google Scholar
Ariew, Roger, Descartes and the First Cartesians (Oxford University Press, 2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Arriaga, Rodrigo SJ, Logica, disp. 16, in Id., Cursus philosophicus (Paris: J. Quesnel, 1639 [1st edn 1632]).Google Scholar
Arsdekin, Richard SJ, Tractatus de idea scientifica, in Id., Theologia universa, vol. II (Dinningen: Bencard, 1687).Google Scholar
Au[s]tin, John, Philosophiae pars prima. Logica (no place, 1746–1747), Vire, Bibliothèque Municipale (now Médiathèque de Vire-Normandie).Google Scholar
Nicholas of Autrecourt, His Correspondence with Master Giles and Bernard of Arezzo, ed. and translated by Rijk, Lambert-Marie de (Leiden: Brill, 1994).Google Scholar
Balibar, Étienne, John Locke, Identité et différence. L'invention de la conscience (Paris: Seuil, 1998).Google Scholar
Begadon, Cormac Stephen, Laity and Clergy in the Catholic Renewal of Dublin, c. 1750–1830 (PhD NUI Maynooth, 2009).Google Scholar
Bhreathnach, Edel, MacMahon, Joseph OFM and McCafferty, John (eds), The Irish Franciscans, 1534–1990 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2009).Google Scholar
Biard, Joël, ‘Certitudo’, in: Mots médiévaux offerts à Ruedi Imbach, ed. Atucha, Iñigo, Calma, Dragos, König-Pralong, Catherine and Zavattero, Irene (Porto: FIDEM, 2011), 153–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biard, Joël, Science et nature. La théorie buridanienne du savoir (Paris: Vrin, 2012).Google Scholar
Blum, Paul Richard, Philosophenphilosophie und Schulphilosophie. Typen des philosophierens in der Neuzeit (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1998).Google Scholar
Boehm, Alfred, ‘Deux essais de renouvellement de la scolastique au XVIIe siècle. II. L'aristotélisme d'Honoré Fabri’, Revue des sciences religieuses 39/4 (1965), 305–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brockliss, Laurence W.B., French Higher Education in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. A Cultural History (Oxford University Press, 1987).Google Scholar
Brockliss, Laurence W.B., ‘The Moment of No Return. The University of Paris and the Death of Aristotelianism’, Science and Education 15/2–4 (2006), 259–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brockliss, Laurence W.B. and Ferté, Patrick, ‘Irish Clerics in France in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: A Statistical Survey’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, series 87C, vol. 9 (1987), 527–572.Google Scholar
Brockliss, Laurence W.B. and Ferté, Patrick, ‘Prosopography of Irish Clerics in the Universities of Paris and Toulouse, 1573–1792’, Archivium Hibernicum 58 (2004), 7–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buhon, Gaspar SJ, Philosophia ad morem Gymnasiorum finemque accomodata (Lyons: Bruyset, 1723).Google Scholar
Buridan, John, Summulae. De demonstrationibus, ed. Rijk, Lambert-Marie de (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001).Google Scholar
Caron, Jean-Charles-Félix, Compendium institutionum philosophiae. Tomus primus (Paris: N.M. Tilliard, 1760).Google Scholar
Chambers, Ephraim, Cyclopedia: Or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, 5th edition (London: D. Midwinter etc., 1751).Google Scholar
Chambers, Liam, ‘Defying Descartes: Michael Moore (1639–1726) and Aristotelian Philosophy in France and Ireland’, in: The Medieval World and the Modern Mind, ed. Brown, Michael and Harrison, Stephen (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000), 11–26.Google Scholar
Chambers, Liam, The Life and Writings of Michael Moore, c. 1639–1726 (PhD NUI Maynooth, 2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, Liam, ‘A Displaced Intelligentsia: Aspects of Irish Catholic Thought in Ancien Régime France’, in: The Irish in Europe, 1580–1815, ed. Thomas O'Connor (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2001), 157–74.Google Scholar
Chambers, Liam, ‘Rivalry and Reform in the Irish College, Paris, 1676–1775’, in: Irish Communities in Early Modern Europe, ed. T. O'Connor & Mary Ann Lyons (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006), 103–129.Google Scholar
Chambers, Liam, ‘Irish Catholics and Aristotelian Scholastic Philosophy in Early-Modern France, c. 1600-c. 1750’, in: The Irish Contribution to European Scholastic Thought, ed. James McEvoy and Michael Dunne (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2009), 312–330.Google Scholar
Corcoran, Timothy, State Policy in Irish Education, 1536–1816 (Dublin: Browne & Nolan, 1916).Google Scholar
Corish, Patrick J., The Irish Catholic Experience. A Historical Survey (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1985).Google Scholar
Dagoumer, Guillaume, Philosophia ad usum scholae accomodata, 4 vols (Paris: Pierre Aubouin, Charles Clousier & Barthélémy Girin, 1701–03).Google Scholar
de Dainville, François SJ, L’éducation des jésuites, XVIe–XVIIIe siècles, ed. Compère, Marie-Madeleine (Paris: Ed. de Minuit, 1991).Google Scholar
Delattre, Pierre SJ (ed.), Les établissements des jésuites en France depuis quatre siècle. Répertoire topo-bibliographique, vol. 4 (Enghien: Institut Supérieur de Théologie / Wetteren: Imprimerie de Meester Frères, 1956).Google Scholar
Delattre, Pierre SJ, ‘Poitiers. Le Collège irlandais (1674–1762)’, in Delattre (1956) 57–60.Google Scholar
Denery, Dallas G., Seeing and Being Seen in the Later Medieval World. Optics, Theology and Religious Life (Cambridge University Press, 2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
René, Descartes, , Principia philosophiae, transl. Cottingham, John, in: Philosophical Writings, vol. I (Cambridge University Press, 1985).Google Scholar
[Du Hamel, Jean-Baptiste, anon.], Philosophia vetus et nova ad usum scholae accomodata, in Regia Burgundica novissimo hoc biennio pertracta. Tomus primus qui Institutiones logicas, & logicam ipsam continet (Paris: Etienne Michallet, 1678).Google Scholar
Du Hamel, Jean, Philosophia universalis, sive commentarius in univer sam Aristotelis philosophiam (Paris: Cl. Thiboust & Esclassan, 1705), 5 vols.Google Scholar
Duddy, Thomas, ‘Introduction’, in: Dictionary of Irish Philosophers (Bristol & New York: Thoemmes & Continuum, 2004).Google Scholar
Dupont-Ferrier, Gustave, Du collège de Clermont au lycée Louis-le-Grand, 1563–1920, vol. 1: Le Collège sous les Jésuites, 1563–1762 (Paris: E. de Boccard, 1921).Google Scholar
Fédérique, Charles-Antoine (Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France, vol. 10, Paris: Plon, 1889).Google Scholar
Feingold, Mordechai, ‘Jesuits: Savants’, in: Jesuit Science and the Republic of Letters, ed. Feingold, M. (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2003), 1–46.Google Scholar
Fenning, Hugh, ‘Some Problems of the Irish Mission, 1733–1774’, Collectanea Hibernica 8 (1965), 58–109.Google Scholar
Ferraro, Angela, La réception de Malebranche en France au XVIIIe siècle. Métaphysique et épistémologie (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2019).Google Scholar
Finegan SJ, Francis, ‘The Irish College of Poitiers: 1674–1762’, The Irish Ecclesiastical Record 104 (1954), 18–31.Google Scholar
Gigot, Daniel, Institutiones philosophicae ad usum Seminariorum. Tomus primus (Toul: Joseph Carez, 1777 [11763]).Google Scholar
Davies, Catherine Glyn, Conscience as Consciousness: The Idea of Self-Awareness in French Philosophical Writing from Descartes to Diderot (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1990).Google Scholar
Grellard, Christophe, Croire et savoir. Les principes de la connaissance selon Nicolas d'Autrécourt (Paris: Vrin, 2005).Google Scholar
Grellard, Christophe, ‘Probabilisme et approximation du vrai au XIVe siècle’, in: Vérité et crédibilité. Construire la vérité dans le système de communication de l'Occident (XIIIe–XVIIe siècle), ed. Genet, Jean-Philippe (Paris: Editions de la Sorbonne / École française de Rome, 2015), 65–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grendler, Paul F., Jesuit Schools and Universities in Europe, 1548–1773 (Leiden: Brill, 2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, William, ‘On the History of the Terms Consciousness, Attention and Reflection’, in: Reid, Thomas, The Works, ed. Hamilton, William (Edinburgh: Maclachlan, Stewart & Co., 1846), vol. 2, 940–945.Google Scholar
Hanna, Blake T., ‘Diderot: formation traditionnelle et formation moderne’, Recherches sur Diderot et l'Encyclopédie 5 (1988), 3–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Mendoza, Pedro Hurtado SJ, Universa philosophia, Mainz 1619 [11615].Google Scholar
Jahan, Sébastien, ‘Les exilés irlandais en Poitou au XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles’, Revue du Nord 400–401/2 (2013), 451–466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knebel, Sven K., Wille, Würfel und Wahrscheinlichkeit. Das System der moralischen Notwendigkeit in der Jesuitenscholastik 1550–1700 (Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 2000).Google Scholar
Knebel, Sven K., ‘Durandus, Quirós, Consciousness’, in: Durand of Saint-Pourçain and His Sentences Commentary, ed. Speer, Andreas, Retucci, Fiorella, Jeschke, Thomas and Guldentops, Guy (Louvain: Peeters, 2014), 343–384.Google Scholar
Kuchařová, Hedvika and Pařez, Jan, The Irish Franciscans in Prague, 1629–1786, transl. Jana and Stoddart, Michael (Prague: Karolinum Press, 2015).Google Scholar
de Laquilhe, Guillaume-Joseph SJ, Logica (1744), Princeton University Library, Ms. C0199, n° 1077.Google Scholar
Lécrivain, Philippe, Les premiers siècles jésuites. Jalons pour une histoire (1540–1814) (Namur: Lessius, 2016).Google Scholar
Lemonnier, Pierre, Cursus philosophicus ad scholarum usum accomodatus, 4 vols (Paris: Louis Genneau & Jacques Rollin, 1750).Google Scholar
Malebranche, Nicolas, Dialogues on Metaphysics and Religion, transl. Scott, David (Cambridge University Press 1997).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayr, Anton SJ, Philosophia peripatetica antiquorum principiis et recentiorum experimentis confirmata, vol. 1: Logica (Venice: N. Pezzana, 1745 [11739]).Google Scholar
McRedmond, Louis, To the Greater Glory of God. A History of the Irish Jesuits (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1991).Google Scholar
Millett, Benignus OFM, The Irish Franciscans, 1651–1665 (Rome: Gregorian University Press, 1964).Google Scholar
Moore, Michael, De existentia Dei et humanae mentis immortalitate secundum Cartesii et Aristotelis doctrinam disputatio in duos libros divisa (Paris: Charles Robustel, 1692).Google Scholar
Northeast, Catherine M., The Parisian Jesuits and the Enlightenment, 1700–1762 (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1991).Google Scholar
Ciosáin, Éamon Ó, ‘Attitudes Towards Ireland and the Irish in Enlightenment France’, in: Ireland and the Enlightenment, 1700–1800, ed. Gargeli, Graham and Sheridan, Geraldine (London: Macmillan, 1999).Google Scholar
O'Connor, Priscilla, Irish Clerics at the University of Paris, 1570–1770 (PhD NUI Maynooth, 2006).Google Scholar
O'Connor, Rhoda F., ‘The Growing Demand for Catholic Education leading to the Establishment of St Patrick's, Maynooth 1795’, Irish Educational Studies 1 (1981), 216–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, Thomas, An Irish Theologian in Enlightenment Europe: Luke Joseph Hooke 1714–1796 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1995).Google Scholar
O'Connor, Thomas (ed.), The Irish in Europe, 1580–1815 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2001).Google Scholar
O'Connor, Thomas, ‘La solidarité contre-réformée: les réseaux de collèges irlandais dans l'Europe catholique, 1578–1793’, in: Étudiants de l'exil. Migrations internationales et universités refuges (XVIe–XXe siècles), ed. Ferté, Patrick and Barrera, Caroline (Toulouse: Presses Universitaires du Mirail, 2009), 71–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, Thomas and Lyons, Mary Ann (eds.), Irish Communities in Early Modern Europe (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006).Google Scholar
O'Connor, Thomas, ‘Luke Joseph Hooke: Theological Tolerance in an Apologetic Mold’, in: Enlightenment and Catholicism in Europe: A Transnational History, ed. Burson, Jeffrey D. and Lehner, Ulrich L. (University of Notre Dame Press, 2014), 420–438.Google Scholar
O’Neill, Charles SJ & Domínguez, Joaquín M. SJ (eds.) Diccionario histórico de la Compañía de Jesús, (Roma & Madrid: Institutum Historicum S.I. / Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, 2001).Google Scholar
O'Rahilly, Alfred, ‘Father John Austin S.J. (1717–1784)’, The Irish Monthly 67/789 (1939), 181–196.Google Scholar
Pasnau, Robert, After Certainty. A History of Our Epistemic Ideals and Illusions (Oxford University Press, 2017).Google Scholar
de Peñafiel, Leonardo SJ, Disputationes scholasticae et morales de virtute fidei divina (Lyons: Pierre Chevalier, 1673).Google Scholar
Popkin, Richard H., The History of Scepticism: From Savonarola to Bayle, Revised and Expanded Edition (Oxford University Press, 2003).Google Scholar
Pourchot, Edme, Institutiones philosophicae ad faciliorem veterum ac recentiorum philosophorum lectionem comparatae, 4 vols (Paris: J.-B. Coignard, 1695).Google Scholar
Pourchot, Edme, Exercitationes scholasticae in varias partes philosophiae (Paris: Jean-Baptiste Coignard, 1700).Google Scholar
Robinson-Hammerstein, Helga, ‘Aspects of the Continental Education of Irish Students in the Reign of Elizabeth I’, Historical Studies 8 (1971), 137–153.Google Scholar
de Rochemonteix, Camille, Un collège de jésuites aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Le Collège Henri IV de La Flèche, Le Mans: Leguicheux, 1889, 4 vols.Google Scholar
Rodis-Lewis, Geneviève, Le problème de l'inconscient et le cartésianisme (Paris: PUF, 1950).Google Scholar
Roux, Sophie, ‘La philosophie naturelle d'Honoré Fabri (1607–1688)’, in: Les Jésuites à Lyon, XVIe-XXe siècles, ed. Fouilloux, Étienne and Hours, Bernard (Lyons: ENS-LSH Editions, 2005), 75–94.Google Scholar
Roux, Sophie, ‘The Condemnations of Cartesian Natural Philosophy Under Louis XIV (1661–91)’, in: The Oxford Handbook on Descartes and Cartesianism, ed. Nadler, Steven, Schmaltz, Tad M. and Antoine-Mahut, Delphine (Oxford University Press, 2019), 755–779.Google Scholar
Schmaltz, Tad M., Radical Cartesianism. The French Reception of Descartes (Cambridge University Press, 2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmaltz, Tad M., ‘A Tale of Two Condemnations: Two Cartesian Condemnations in 17th-Century France’, in: Descartes e i suoi Avversari. Incontri cartesiani II, ed. Prete, Antonella Del (Florence: Le Monnier Università, 2004), 203–221.Google Scholar
Schmaltz, Tad M., Early Modern Cartesianisms: Dutch and French Constructions (Oxford University Press, 2017).Google Scholar
Schmutz, Jacob, ‘L'invention jésuite du “sentiment d'existence”, ou comment la philosophie sort des collèges’, XVIIe siècle 59/4 (2007a), 613–631.Google Scholar
Schmutz, Jacob, ‘L'existence de l'ego comme premier principe métaphysique avant Descartes’, in: Généalogies du sujet, de saint Anselme à Malebranche, ed. Boulnois, Olivier (Paris: Vrin, 2007b), 215–268.Google Scholar
Schmutz, Jacob, ‘Pedro Hurtado de Mendoza, the Scholastic Godfather of Early-Modern Philosophy. Teachers, Students, Manuscripts, and the Making of a Philosophical Classic in Early-Modern Europe’, in: Pedro Hurtado de Mendoza (1578–1641). System, Sources and Influence, ed. Novák, Lukaš and Novotný, Daniel D. (Leiden: Brill, 2020), forthcoming.Google Scholar
Schüssler, Rudolf, The Debate on Probable Opinions in the Scholastic Tradition (Leiden: Brill, 2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sortais, Gaston, Le cartésianisme chez les Jésuites français au XVIIe et au XVIIIe siècle (Paris: Beauchesne, 1929).Google Scholar
Spink, John S., ‘Les avatars du sentiment d'existence de Locke à Rousseau’, XVIIIe siècle 10 (1978), 268–98.Google Scholar
Swords, Liam (ed.), The Irish-French Connection, 1578–1978 (Paris: The Irish College, 1978).Google Scholar
Thorndike, Lynn, ‘The Cursus philosophicus before Descartes’, Archives internationales d'histoire de la science 4 (1951), 16–24.Google Scholar
Toland, John, Christianity not Mysterious, 2nd edition enlarged (London: S. Buckley, 1696).Google Scholar
de Ulloa, Juan SJ, Prodomus, seu prolegomena ad scholasticas disciplinas. Editio secunda (Madrid: Antonio Marín, 1748 [11711]).Google Scholar
Whelan, Kevin, ‘A Nation in Waiting? The Irish in France in the Eighteenth Century’, in: Franco-Irish Connections. Essays, Memoirs and Poems in Honour of Pierre Joannon (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2009), 304–320.Google Scholar
Zupko, Jack, ‘On Certitude’, in: The Metaphysics and Natural Philosophy of John Buridan, ed. Thijssen, J.H.H.M. and Zupko, Jack (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 165–182.Google Scholar