Reason's Children: Childhood in Early Modern Philosophy (Bucknell Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture) (Buckwell Studies in Eighteenth-century Literatue and Culture) 0838757219, 9780838757215

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Reason' s Children Childhood in Early Modern Philosophy

Anthony Krupp

Lewisburg Bucknell University Press

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Krupp, Anthony, 1968Reason's children: childhood in early modern philosophy / Anthony Krupp. p. cm. lncludes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8387-5721-5 (alk. paper) 1. Children and philosophy. I. Title. Bl05.C45K78 2009 305.2301-dc22 2008021403

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

For Sylvia Papazian Krupp, who.1e in/ancy and toddlerhood pa.1.1ed aJ thû book wa.1 written.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

9

13 24

l. Descartes: Purging the Mind of Childish Ways 2. Locke and Leibniz: Understanding Children

49

3. Locke: Children's Language and the Fate of Changelings 4. Leibniz: Against Infant Damnation

107

5. Wolff: The lnferiority of Childhood

137

6. Baumgarten: Childhood and the Analogue of Reason Afterword

180

Appendix: Pierre Bayle, Re.1ponde to the Que.1tÛJnJ of a Provincial, Chapters 177-78 183 Abbreviations Notes

203

Bibliography Index

200

253

243

80

164

Acknowledgments

T

HANKS ARE DUE TO SEVERAL COLLEAGUES WHO GAVE ME SUBSTANTIAL feedback on one or more chapters: Traci Ardren, Adriana S. Benzaquén, Anne Cruz, Viviana Diaz-Baisera, Simon Evnine, John Fitzgerald, Ralph Heyndels, Horst Lange, Gema Perez-Sanchez, Elliott Schreiber, Maria Stampino, Frank Stringfellow, Amie Thomasson, Bridget West, Paul Wilson, and Barbara Woshinsky. Particular thanks are due to David Ellison, who read several versions of the manuscript and provided canny guidance throughout. I am indebted to John Lyon for inviting me to speak on "Damned Babies" in January 2006 at the University of Pitts­ burgh. I would also like to thank Risto Hilpinen for his conversational generosity in our accidentai meetings and strolls. I am much obliged to Bucknell's anonymous reader, whose invaluable suggestions have im­ proved this study. My Bayle translation was polished according to the expert feedback of Karyn H. Anderson, David Ellison, and Barbara Woshinsky. Gabri­ elle Rapke assisted with Descartes's Latin, checking several quotations and translating part of a letter to Descartes. My translations from the early modern Latin of Zanchius and Baumgarten were improved by the kind assistance of Joshua Davies and Hugh Thomas. I regard my Baum­ garten translation as functional, not graceful; I would like to hereby ex­ press the wish that someone well equipped to do so translate Baum­ garten's Authetü:a into English soon. A Max Orovitz Research Award provided financial support during the summer months of 2005. For permission to cross-List courses in the departments of History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies, and thereby test a number of ideas, I thank Guido Ruggerio, Steve Sapp, and Har­ vey Siegel. A version of chapter 6 appeared as "Cultivation as Maturation," Monat