Jonathan Israel Discusses the Islamic World and the Radical Enlightenment

PRINCETON, N.J. - May 12, 2008 - Jonathan Israel, Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, will present a lecture titled The Islamic World and the Radical Enlightenment: Toleration, Freethinking and Personal Liberty on Wednesday, May 21, at 4:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute's campus.

Jonathan Israel

In this lecture, Israel will address topics that arose from a recent innovative colloquium, Islamic Freethinking and Western Radicalism, held at the Institute in April.  He will discuss the Radical Enlightenment, that part of the Western Enlightenment, which from around 1660 onwards, pushed for full freedom of thought, religious freedom and personal liberty together with democracy and the principle of equality. This part of the Enlightenment, what might be broadly termed the Democratic Enlightenment, has come to be much more intensively studied and better understood in recent years than it was before the 1990s. One of its characteristic features is its use of the medieval Islamic freethinkers and their ideas, and its interpretation of the special features of Islamic society and politics, to illustrate and broaden its own arguments for transforming the Western World.

This lecture is presented with support provided by the Dr. S.T. Lee Fund for Historical Studies.

Israel joined the Faculty at the Institute in 2001. He received his undergraduate education at Queens' College, Cambridge.  His postgraduate work was conducted at St. Antony's College, Oxford, and the Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City. He was awarded a Ph.D. in 1972 by St. Antony's College, and from 1973 to 1975, he was an Assistant Lecturer and a Lecturer at the University of Hull.  At the University College, London, he was Lecturer in Early Modern European History from 1974 to 1981, Reader in Modern History from 1981 to 1985 and Professor of Dutch History and Institutions from 1985 to 2000.

Israel was named a Fellow of the British Academy in 1992, a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences in 1994, and an Honorary Professor at the University of Amsterdam in 2003.  He holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Antwerp and Rotterdam.  The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences recently honored him with the 2008 Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize in History by for "his vitally new perspective on the history of the Enlightenment."

His recent work focuses on the impact of radical thought -- especially Spinoza, Bayle, Diderot and the eighteenth century French materialists -- on the Enlightenment and emergence of modern ideas of democracy, equality, toleration, freedom of the press and individual freedom.

For further information about this event, which is free and open to the public, please call (609) 734-8175, or visit the Public Events page on the Institute website, www.ias.edu.