The Theory of Cognition in Transylvania (1629–1658). The Herborn Tradition and the Influence of Dutch Cartesianism

0583127 - FLÚ 2024 RIV CZ eng J - Journal Article
Szentpéteri, Márton
The Theory of Cognition in Transylvania (1629–1658). The Herborn Tradition and the Influence of Dutch Cartesianism.
Acta Comeniana. -, 36/60 (2022), s. 9-35. ISSN 0231-5955
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA19-02938S
Institutional support: RVO:67985955
Keywords : theory of cognition * Herborn tradition * Trinitarianism * Cartesianism * minimalistic view of accommodation
OECD category: Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology
Method of publishing: Metadata only
https://filosofia.flu.cas.cz/publikace/616

This paper compares the two models of the theory of cognition established by the Herborn encyclopaedists and by their successor in Transylvania, János Apáczai Csere. I claim that the major difference between the considerations of the Herborners and those of Apáczai Csere lies in the modest and gradual separation of the realms of faith and reason. Whereas Johann Heinrich Alsted, Johann Heinrich Bisterfeld, Jan Amos Comenius, and Apáczai Csere’s first master, András Porcsalmi, based their theories of cognition on the three interrelated foundations of experience, right reason, and the Holy Writ in a typically Trinitarian fashion, Apáczai Csere gradually adopted the Cartesian use of the exegetical principle of accommodation, which separates knowledge deriving from the Bible and the book of nature. It is highly possible that one of the major sources to catalyse Apáczai Csere’s interest in this issue was an anonymous book published in the Netherlands and devoted to Copernicanism. Apáczai Csere’s Cartesianism should not be overestimated, however. In his late Philosophia naturalis, typical of the eclecticism of the second and third Post-Ramist generations, Apáczai Csere happily combines theories taken from Cartesians with notions reminiscent of William Ames and the moral principles of Protestant scholasticism so familiar to Alsted and the other Herborners.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0351211