Rethinking European Modernity

Reason, Power, and Coloniality in Early Modern Thought

Hans Schelkshorn (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

512 Seiten

2025
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-26681-0 (ISBN)

Noch nicht erschienen (ca. Juli 2025)
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This open access book undertakes a self-critical reinterpretation of European modernity and responds to the need for a global understanding of the development of Western thought. Showcasing contemporary Latin American approaches that align modernity with colonialism, and European theories of modernity, Hans Schelkshorn reassesses the origins of modernity. He brings neglected Renaissance thinkers into the narrative, discussing the work of Nicholas of Cusa, Pico della Mirandola, Francisco de Vitoria, and Michel de Montaigne, and critiquing the views of Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke.

Across a series of historical studies, Schelkshorn presents modernity as a complex process. His use of the concept ‘de-limitations’ (Entgrenzungen) shows how the new idea of an infinite universe and the discovery of the Americas deeply influenced the foundations of modern science, politics and economies in the 17th century. Making a major contribution to scholarship on early modern philosophy, Schelkshorn paves the way for a more cosmopolitan account of European thought.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Hans Schelkshorn/University of Vienna.

Hans Schelkshorn is Head of the Department of Intercultural Philosophy of Religion at the University of Vienna, Austria.

List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations

Introduction: A Self-Critical Reinterpretation of European Modernity in a Global Context

Part I. Reason, Power and Coloniality: Three Paradigmatic Interpretations of Modernity
1. Modern Reason as Syndrome of Power? Martin Heidegger, Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno
2. The Enlightenment as an Unfinished Project: Karl-Otto Apel and Jürgen Habermas
3. The Challenge of Decolonial Philosophies: The Case of Latin America
4. Summary and Preview

Part II. Transcending Boundaries of the Cosmos and the Ecumene: A Retrospect on the Thought of the Renaissance
5. The De-Limitation of the Cosmos and the Revaluation of Insatiable Curiosity: Nicholas of Cusa
6. Freedom as Self-Creation: Pico della Mirandola’s Oratio de hominis dignitate
7. The Conquest of America and the Foundations of Global Cosmopolitanism: Francisco De Vitoria and Juan Ginés De Sepúlveda
8. Experimental Self-Fashioning in an Unlimited World: Michel de Montaigne

Part III. Foundations of Modern Science, Politics and Economy in the Philosophy of the Seventeenth Century
9. Francis Bacon’s Vision of Modern Science and Limitless Technological Progress
10. Thomas Hobbes: The Foundation of Modern Politics Amid Escalating Social Conflicts
11. John Locke: The Justification of an Unlimited Market Economy
12. Epilogue: The Future of Modernity and the New Search for Self-Limitations

Notes
References
Index of Names

Erscheint lt. Verlag	24.7.2025
Zusatzinfo	2 bw illus
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Geschichte der Philosophie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Philosophie des Mittelalters
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Philosophie der Neuzeit
	Sozialwissenschaften
ISBN-10	1-350-26681-7 / 1350266817
ISBN-13	978-1-350-26681-0 / 9781350266810
Zustand	Neuware