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1 year ago in History of Philosophy , Intellectual History By Varun
What are the main textual sources a historian should consult to study the concept and debates around "ethics" in Europe between 1500 and 1620?
My project examines the shifting foundations of moral philosophy from scholasticism to humanist and early modern thought. Beyond Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (which was constantly reprinted), what specific works by Erasmus, Luther, Machiavelli, Montaigne, or neo-Scholastics are indispensable for understanding the period's ethical debates?
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By Prajwal Sharma Answered 10 months ago
To grasp this transformative period, you must engage with four intersecting streams. First, the humanist revival: Erasmus's The Education of a Christian Prince and The Praise of Folly. Second, the political rupture: Machiavelli's The Prince (1513). Third, the theological reformulation: Luther's On the Freedom of a Christian and Calvin's Institutes. Fourth, the late scholastic synthesis: Francisco Suárez's De Legibus. The period culminates in the skeptical, experiential ethics of Montaigne's Essays. Alongside these, consult vernacular conduct books and neo-Stoic works like Justus Lipsius's De Constantia. Aristotle's Ethics remains the universal reference point against and through which all these authors argued.
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