Heyd, Michael - 1943-2014

Personal: Born 1943, Jerusalem; Ph.D. 1974, Princeton Univ.; Lect. 1977; Sen. Lect. 1980; Assoc. Prof. 1987; Prof. 1995.

Research Interests:

Critique of enthusiasm in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Science and religion in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Academy of Geneva in the early 18th century. Problems of secularization in the early modern period.

Research Project:

The history of the Hebrew University. (Chairman of the academic committee in charge of the project, financed by the Hebrew University. Preparatory work done together with Dr. Shaul Katz).

Abstracts of Current Research:

The relationship between enthusiasm and science in the 17th and early 18th centuries:

While advocates of the new mechanistic and experimental philosophy saw it as an effective antidote to "enthusiasm" (the alleged claims to have direct divine inspiration), philosophers like Descartes and the founders of the Royal Society were themselves regarded sometimes as "enthusiasts" by conservative critics. The relationship between enthusiasm and mechanistic philosophy is thus more complex than it usually seems.

Science, religion and university in 18th century Geneva:

The new experimental science was increasingly introduced in the Genevan Academy (which served in fact as a university) during the late 17th and the early 18th century. Having worked on the introduction of Cartesian science in the second half of the 17th century, I am currently examining the social and ideological role science played in the first half of the 18th century, at a period when the rule of the Genevan oligarchy came under growing pressure from below.

The New Science in Jesuit and Calvinist educational institutions in the 17th century:

The question of science and religion has often been dealt with in the context of Protestantism, and more recently, Jesuit culture as well. The present project (carried out jointly with Dr. Rivka Feldhay of Tel Aviv University) aims at a comparative study of the diffusion and practice of the new natural philosophy in Calvinist and Jesuit academies or colleges. It focuses not only on differences in content but in the type of discourse used, and on the relationship between institutional context and intellectual text.

Recent Publications:

FELDHAY, R. and HEYD, M. The discourse of pious science. Science in Context, 3:109-143, 1990.

HEYD, M. Descartes - An Enthusiast malgr? lui? In: Sceptics, Millenarians and Jews, eds. D. Katz and J. Israel, Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1990, pp.35-58.