"Sense and Sensibility. The Scholastic Origins of the Enlightenment Man of Feeling".

Damien Tricoire

Abstract

Eighteenth-century studies interpret the Enlightenment as a break with scholasticism, that is medieval university philosophy. In this paper, I propose a radically different view: my aim is to show that core concepts of Enlightenment philosophy, and thus central ideas in Enlightenment culture in general, were of scholastic origin. I will focus on Rousseau's moral philosophy, and, in several reception stages, trace back its core ideas to 13th-century scholasticism. This may help to understand better the theological dimension of Enlightenment thought and culture, often associated with secularisation.