Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Popular philosophy
(892 words)

1. General

The concern expressed programmatically during the Enlightenment under the heading popular philosophy to make philosophical issues accessible in layman’s terms has a history reaching back to antiquity. Some schools of classical philosophy – Platonism, for instance – made a distinction between esoteric and exoteric teaching. Exoteric teaching had the task of presenting the substance of esoteric teaching – which was accessible only to trained philosophers…

Cite this page
Lehmann-Brauns, Sicco, “Popular philosophy”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 02 April 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_025732>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20210107



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