Descartes, Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob and the lux intelligentiae: arguing with Jesuits in 17th century France and Ethiopia

Dear All,

We are pleased to invite you to the next seminar in the “Renaissance Mind” series, featuring Dr. Jonathan Joshua Egid from SOAS, University of London, on November 27th. at 2 pm. Dr. Egid will guide us through a fascinating exploration of how Jesuit philosophy influenced the rationalist ideas of René Descartes in France and Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob in Ethiopia. By comparing their intellectual responses, the seminar will consider the possibilities of a ‘connected history’ of 17th-century philosophy across diverse traditions. The discussion will also touch on broader global intellectual trends of the time, examining links to Mughal India, Ming China, and colonial North America. Join us for an engaging look at the intersections of global thought! More information below

Descartes, Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob and the lux intelligentiae: arguing with Jesuits in 17th century France and Ethiopia (or, prospects for a ‘connected’ history of 17th century philosophy)

 Abstract:         

 The importance of Descartes’ Jesuit education has been noted by a number of commentators, but less well remarked on is their influence on another 17^th century philosopher from a quite different part of the world: the Ethiopian philosopher Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob *. In the first part of this paper, I examine how the thoughts of both philosophers, often read in parallel as prototypical ‘rationalists’, might have been shaped by their engagement with Jesuit thinkers, and how a comparative study of their reactions to Jesuit philosophy might form the ground of a ‘connected’ history of 17^th philosophy encompassing two quite different geographical areas and intellectual traditions. In the second part of the paper, I widen the scope of the comparisons to a quasi-global scale, considering a speculative account of how comparable historical circumstances related to the ‘General Crisis’ of the 17^th century might have influenced the development of ‘syncretisms’ and ‘rationalisms’ in Mughal India, Ming China and colonial North America. Without necessarily endorsing this view, I consider the question of what kind of historical evidence might be admissible to substantiate such connections, and thus of the prospects for a ‘connected history of philosophy’ proposed by Jonardon Ganeri, Justin E.H. Smith and others. I conclude with some reflections on the importance of studying unusual sources of philosophical thought, such as religious works or travel literature, and the advantages for a ‘connected’, as opposed to a merely comparative approach to the global history of philosophy.

* I bracket the famously intractable and contentious question of the authorship of the Ḥatäta Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob, but would be more than happy to discuss it in a Q&A session. 

Keywords:  Descartes, Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob, Jesuits, Connected history of philosophy, 17^th century 

Biography

 Jonathan Egid is a Lecturer in Philosophy at SOAS, University of London. He received his PhD in Philosophy from King’s College London in June 2024, writing a thesis on a 17th century Ethiopian philosopher named Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob and the question of whether or not he existed. This research was funded by the London Arts and Humanities Partnership, and the British Society for the History of Philosophy, for which he was a postgraduate fellow 2023-24. He received his BPhil in philosophy from Wadham College Oxford, and his BA from the University of Kent in Canterbury and Université Paris IV – La Sorbonne. He has held research fellowships at the Freie Universität in Berlin and Addis Ababa University. His first edited volume (with Lea Cantor of Cambridge and Fasil Merawi of Addis Ababa), In Search of Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob was published by De Gruyter in September, and a second volume is under contract with Oxford University Press. He is a BBC New Generation Thinker for 2024, and his essays on philosophy, art and politics appear regularly in the Times Literary Supplement, Literary Review and elsewhere.

When: 27 November 2024 at 2 pm.

Where: The event will take place in room 143 of the Staszic Palace and on the Google Meet platform.

Link: https://meet.google.com/wve-bxkf-eie 

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