Project description
Exploring the origins of critical thought
In today’s European societies, the concept of critique holds pivotal importance, defining our capacity for independent thought and resistance to authority. Yet, while critique is celebrated in education and the workforce, its historical political dimensions remain largely unexplored. How did critique become synonymous with challenging authority and thinking autonomously? What were the social and ideological forces shaping its evolution? With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the DEPICT project will trace the origins of critique in the early modern era. By delving into its socio-economic and political contexts of the 16th and 17th centuries, DEPICT aims to illuminate how critical thinking emerged as a transformative force.
Objective
“Critique” represents a fundamental notion of modern European societies. It is, at least according to our own self-understanding, by thinking and acting critically – that is, by “thinking for ourselves” and by “resisting authority” – that we distinguish ourselves from societies that came before us and from those with which we continue to co-exist. However, in stark contrast to critique’s contemporary political importance, exemplified by its enthronement in educational institutions and its consecration by the labour market, the specifically political aspects of critique’s history remain either taken for granted or acutely underexplored.
How did it come to be that the concept of critique self-evidently implies the emancipatory ability to “think for oneself”? When and how did the concept of critique become inseparably tied with the revolutionary imperative to “resist authority”? What were the general ideological assumptions and specific political implications of these conceptualisations? Which social groups championed such a comprehension of critique and which historical struggles structured its conceptual elaboration? Against which rival comprehensions, antagonistic social entities, and conflicting political agendas, did this version of critique establish itself as the legitimate and the dominant one?
Amid growing theoretical concerns related to critique’s intellectual, social, and political efficiency, answers to these historical questions are urgently needed if critical thought and critical action are to maintain their central role in the functioning of modern European societies.
DEPICT will contribute to this endeavour in a timely manner, by providing an original account of the socio-economic, confessional, and political coordinates of the emergence of the concept of critique in the early modern period and of the various ideologies structuring its mobilisation in the 16th and 17th century.
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01
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75794 Paris
France
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