A HISTORY OF “RATIONALISM” IN VICTORIAN BRITAIN

“Rationalism” became the subject of intense debate in nineteenth-century Britain. This article asks why this was so, by focusing on the usage and implications of the term in contemporary argument. Rationalism was successively defined and redefined in ways that reached to the heart of Victorian epist...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inModern intellectual history Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 63 - 91
Main Author BENNETT, JOSHUA
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.04.2018
Subjects
19th century
Christianity
Empiricism
Epistemology
Historians
Modernity
Nature
Rationalism
Rationality
Religion
Scientific method
Theology
Victorian period
United Kingdom > UK
New York
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN1479-2443
1479-2451
DOI10.1017/S1479244315000438

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Summary:“Rationalism” became the subject of intense debate in nineteenth-century Britain. This article asks why this was so, by focusing on the usage and implications of the term in contemporary argument. Rationalism was successively defined and redefined in ways that reached to the heart of Victorian epistemological and religious discussion. By treating rationalism as a contextually specific term, and examining how its implications changed between the 1820s and the early twentieth century, the article brings new perspectives to bear on the development of nineteenth-century freethought and countervailing religious apologetic. It underlines the importance of history, and constructions of intellectual lineage, as ways of establishing the relationship between rationality and religion in a progressively wider-ranging Victorian debate about the sources of knowledge and value.
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ISSN:1479-2443
1479-2451
DOI:10.1017/S1479244315000438