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Royal Society [ Institutions / Clubs & Societies ]

… Abstract Founded in 1660, the Royal Society is the world’s oldest scientific institution. In the long eighteenth century, fellows dedicated themselves to … roughly composed of 20% aristocrats (up from 14% 1660-1699), 16% clerics and scholars, 16% physicians, 15% courtier and civil servants, and 15% gentlemen (Sorrenson 36). Election to the fellowship was a prestigious appointment and, as … work A Social History of Truth (1994) presents the Royal Society as a microcosm of genteel society; a culture of civility where birth, wealth, and virtue were connected in the moral economy of scientific knowledge. Given their …

Laughter [ Communication ]

… quite like laughter. Practices > Communication Keywords Laughter humour Wit Taste Politeness impoliteness Manners civil society In May 1787, author-turned cleric Thomas Monro devoted an issue of his short-lived periodical to the topic of … which he treated as a scale, moving from laughter’s most subtle varieties through to its heartiest: 2 . Ross Carroll, Uncivil Mirth: Ridicule in Enlightenment Britain (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021). The Smile leads up ; the …

Sovereignty (in Hobbes's philosophy) [ Political & Moral philosophy / Philosophy ]

… and politeness behind the virtue of obedience. Concepts > Political & Moral philosophy People > Philosophy Keywords Civility Friendship Hobbes Sovereignty Violence War The refutation of natural sociability The majority of political … the polis ) gradually evolved into the principle of natural sociability, or the relatively advanced capacity to live in society, with reason and its manifestation, language, substituting for brute force. Hobbes departed radically from this philosophical tradition in his interpretation of the civil wars that racked England, giving his own analysis of human nature, and established his theory of sovereignty, that …

Scientific experiments [ Politics & Society / Science ]

… consumption and shared experiences within the new associational forms of the public sphere. Practices > Politics & Society People > Science Keywords experiments science chemistry electricity mechanics public lecture association Meeting … 1660. The Royal Society had coalesced as a microcosm of the restored social order in England after the upheavals of the civil wars and interregnum. At its meetings, experiments were performed for an assembly of witnesses who could freely … interpersonal interactions, a concretization of the sympathetic feelings that were understood to bind people together in civilized society. 4 . Gentleman’s Magazine 15 (1745), pp. 193-7, quoted in Simon Schaffer, ‘Natural Philosophy and …

Scottish clans [ Social interaction / Association ]

… Jacobite rebellion. Concepts > Social interaction People > Association Keywords Clans Highlands Union Tartan Scottish society Identity Scottish Enlightenment Clubs and Societies Scotland Tradition In the eighteenth century, Scottish … priests. Those who came back to their native land shared what they learnt in what was then considered the best European civilised and learned societies. The clans of the Lowlands, or those living in large towns of the North such as Aberdeen, … 4 Up until the end of the seventeenth century, the reputation of the Highland clans was also one of cattle-thieves and uncivilised groups of people hidden in the most remote places of Scotland. The Statutes of Iona (1609), which obliged all …