Vices of Learning

Morality and Knowledge at Early Modern Universities

AvSari Kivisto

Inbunden, Engelska, 2014

Del 48 i serien Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

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Beskrivning

In The Vices of Learning: Morality and Knowledge at Early Modern Universities, Sari Kivistö examines scholarly vices in the late Baroque and early Enlightenment periods. Moral criticism of the learned was a favourite theme of Latin dissertations, treatises and satires written in Germany ca. 1670–1730. Works on scholarly pride, logomachy, curiosity and other vices kept the presses running at German Protestant universities as well as farther north. Kivistö shows how scholars constructed fame and how the process involved various means of producing celebrity. The book industry, plagiarism and impressive titles were all labelled dishonest means of advancing a career. In The Vices of Learning Kivistö argues that scholarly ethics was an essential part of the early modern intellectual framework.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2014-05-09
Mått:155 x 235 x 23 mm
Vikt:611 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Antal sidor:304
Förlag:Brill
ISBN:9789004264120

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Mer om författaren

Sari Kivistö, Ph.D. (2002, Helsinki), Docent of Comparative Literature, works as an Academy of Finland Research Fellow and Deputy Director at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. Kivistö has published widely on satire and Neo-Latin literature (e.g., Medical Analogy in Latin Satire, 2009).

Recensioner i media

"...For anyone interested to learn why so many philosophers ended up drowning or why scholars (still) fight each other over grammatical trivialities; for all eager to learn to recognize the symptoms of literary Machiavellism or the potential atheism of curiosity; for all readers willing to learn more about the alcholism, food abstention or smoke addictions of smelly university professors, or the furious dogs, vulpine characters and bibliomaniacs who have always populated our biotope, this monograph makes not only good bed-time reading, but has also a significant new contribution to make to the history of knowledge." - Dirk van Miert, in: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 128:2 (2015)"...Kivistö has produced an interesting and carefully organized monograph that includes appendixes. ...The book lacks examples of funny satires, because the critics took their task seriously, as does Kivistö." - Paul F. Grendler, in Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 68, No. 3 (Fall 2015), pp. 1021-1022

Innehållsförteckning

Acknowledgements ...vii1 Introduction: Academic Self-criticism in the Early Modern Period...1Dissertations on Scholarly Vices...1Social Criticism of Scholars ...7Religious Critics of Errors Made by the Learned...13Classifying the Vices of the Intellect and the Will...17Vices of Learning Chapter by Chapter...222 Self-love and Pride...28Preliminary Definitions...28Good and Bad Self-love (philautia) ...32Obstinacy as a Symptom of Self-love ...35Similar to God: Pride ( fastus) ...40The Dogs of the Nile: Autodidacts and Self-sufficiency ...46Heads Full of Wind and Other Images of Pride ...51Spitzel’s Historical Examples of Pride ...59Pedantry and Thrasonism ...63Humility and Modesty ...69Conclusion ...733 The Desire for Fame ...76Meursius on Glory, Fame and Ambition ...77Fame and Public Recognition ...83Literary Machiavellianism, Academic Deceit and Avarice ...89The Itch to Write ...95Agraphia...106Bibliotaphia...111Plagiarism and Academic Thieves...118Titulomania...134Conclusion...1434 Logomachia and Futile Quarrelling...147Disputations in Schools and Universities...147Sophists and Other Wicked Disputants...153Sectarians and Eclectics...156Werenfels on Word-battles...161Obscurity and Misunderstanding...171Grammar Wars...173Logomachies in Law...180Pleasure, Ambition and Avarice...186Advice on Moral Improvement...190On Modesty, Again...194Conclusions about Peacefulness...1975 Curiosity and Novelties...202Against Novelties...204Bad Curiosity and Ambition...207Measuring the World versus Knowing the Self...212Curious Fields of Knowledge...217Examples of Curious Scholars...223Atheism, Curiosity and Singularity...226Operative Curiosity...231Conclusions about Curiosity and Useful Learning...2336 Bad Manners and Old Learning...239Unfashionable Scholars...239Bad Communication...243Solitude and Misanthropy...246The Silence of the Philosophers...251Seniority versus Youth...253Conclusion...2567 Conclusions about Morality and Knowledge...259Appendix...265Bibliography...274Index...297