Enlightenment and the Republic of Letters at the Dublin Medico-Philosophical Society, 1756-1784
Citation:
Rachael Scally, 'Enlightenment and the Republic of Letters at the Dublin Medico-Philosophical Society, 1756-1784', Graduate Students’ Union of the University of Dublin, Trinity College, Journal of Postgraduate Research;14, 2015Download Item:
Abstract:
The Dublin Medico-Philosophical Society was established by John Rutty, Charles
Smith and others in 1756. It was a small, self-funded and self-selecting learned society,
which met on a bi-monthly basis to present and discuss medical and scientific papers
on new and improving subjects. This article examines the society and its connection to
an Enlightenment and a cosmopolitan Republic of Letters. It investigates the society’s
inauguration, membership, ideology and aims and considers how information was
collected, produced and disseminated by its members. It proposes that the society
was an improvement society, that wanted to improve Ireland by advancing organized
learning and harnessing practical knowledge for the betterment of the nation. It
contends that the society was a band of virtuosi, a talented and influential group
of surgeons, physicians, apothecaries and clerics, who utilized the methodological
and empirical approaches of the Enlightenment. It concludes that the Enlightenment
was not only in Ireland but that Ireland, or more correctly Dublin, in the form of the
Dublin Medico-Philosophical Society and its Irish scientific Republic of Letters, was
also participating in the Enlightenment.
Author: Scally, Rachael
Publisher:
Graduate Students’ Union of the University of Dublin, Trinity CollegeType of material:
Journal ArticleCollections
Series/Report no:
Journal of Postgraduate Research;14Availability:
Full text availableKeywords:
medicine., science,, the Republic of Letters, Enlightenment, The Dublin Medico-Philosophical SocietyISSN:
2009-4787Metadata
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