In 1500, speculative philosophy lay at the heart of European intellectual life; by 1700, its role was drastically diminished. The Kingdom of Darkness tells the story of this momentous transformation. Dmitri Levitin explores the structural factors behind this change: the emancipation of natural philosophy from metaphysics; theologians' growing preference for philology over philosophy; and a new conception of the limits of the human mind derived from historical and oriental scholarship, not least concerning China and Japan. In turn, he shows that the ideas of two of Europe's most famous thinkers, Pierre Bayle and Isaac Newton, were both the products of this transformation and catalysts for its success. Drawing on hundreds of sources in many languages, Levitin traces in unprecedented detail Bayle and Newton's conceptions of what Thomas Hobbes called The Kingdom of Darkness: a genealogical vision of how philosophy had corrupted the human mind. Both men sought to remedy this corruption, and their ideas helped lay the foundation for the system of knowledge that emerged in the eighteenth century.
- Proposes a new, large-scale explanation of early modern intellectual change
- Offers brand new, in-depth interpretations of the thought of two of Europe's leading thinkers, Pierre Bayle and Isaac Newton
- Combines approaches from the history of philosophy, science, medicine, scholarship, Orientalism, theology, and political thought
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Awards
- Winner, 2023 Choice Awards
Reviews & endorsements
'This truly monumental study calls for a Copernican revolution in our understanding of Modernity: the European Mind, Levitin argues, was not transformed by the triumph of philosophy but by emancipation from it. The evidence and acumen with which Levitin advances his bold thesis are extraordinary and will provoke debate for years to come.' Maria Rosa Antognazza, King's College London
'In his extraordinarily erudite and broad-ranging study, Levitin compels us to rethink historiographic categories such as the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment and the rise of modernity in Europe by charting the contingent historical conditions that prompted a momentous, yet overlooked, disciplinary reconfiguration of early-modern natural philosophy and theology; namely, the emancipation of both scientific and religious thought from traditional metaphysics and philosophical rationalism.' Niccolò Guicciardini, Università degli Studi di Milano
'This is one of the most important publications in European intellectual history, not just of this year, but of the last decade.' Noel Malcolm, Books of the Year 2022, Times Literary Supplement
'… Levitin makes a powerful case for the need to reconceptualize understanding of the Enlightenment and its subsequent history and influence on modern thought. The book is a paradigm of academic scholarship. The author's research and presentation are comprehensive and extensive … Essential.' D. B. Boersema, Choice
'… a remarkably erudite and important study with a highly intricate argument that requires slow and careful reading if one is fully to grasp its insights and nuances.' Daniel Woolf, Marginalia Review of Books
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Product details
- Date Published: March 2022
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9781108837002
- length: 980 pages
- dimensions: 236 x 158 x 56 mm
- weight: 1.53kg
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Preface
Abbreviations and Conventions
Part I. Giving Up Philosophy: The Transformation of a System of Knowledge:
1. Giving Up Philosophy
1.1. The Emancipation of Natural Philosophy from Metaphysics
1.2. The Emancipation of Theology from Philosophy
1.3. Reconstructing the Pagan Mind in Seventeenth-century Europe: A Historico-philosophical Critique of Pure Reason
Part II. Pierre Bayle and The Emancipation of Religion from Philosophy:
2. Pierre Bayle: A Life in the Republic of Letters
2.1. Greece, Asia, and the Logic of Paganism. Cartesian Occasionalism as the only 'Christian Philosophy'
2.2. The Manichean Articles and the 'Sponge of All Religions'
2.3. Theological Method and the Foundations of Protestant Faith
2.4. Virtuous Atheism, Philosophic Sin, and Toleration
Part III. Isaac Newton and the Emancipation of Natural Philosophy from Metaphysics:
3. The Formation of Newton's Natural Philosophical Project, 1664–1687
3.1. After the Principia. Justifying a Science of Properties and the Invention of 'Newtonianism'
3.2. The Queries to the Optice (1706). An Intelligent God, the Divine Sensorium, and the Development of an Anti-metaphysical Natural Theology
3.3. The General Scholium: A Non-metaphysical Physics
3.4. Newton's Kingdom of Darkness Complete
Part IV. Conclusion: The European System of Knowledge, 1700 and Beyond: Conclusion
Bibliography.
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Author
Dmitri Levitin, University of Oxford
Dmitri Levitin is a Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He works on the history of knowledge: philosophical, scientific, medical, and humanistic. He has previously held positions at Trinity College, Cambridge and at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC. His first book, Ancient Wisdom in the Age of the New Science (Cambridge, 2015) was a Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year. He writes regularly for the London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, and The Literary Review. In 2016, he was awarded the inaugural Leszek Kolakowski Prize for the world's leading early-career historian of ideas.
Awards
- Winner, 2023 Choice Awards