Leibniz’s Islam oscillated between theological foe, barbarian, and natural philosopher

Evidence

The Enlightenment saw the birth of scholarship on Islam that was both realistic and sympathetic. For instance, in contrast to the vicious medieval demonization of Muhammad, several philosophers published tracts arguing that Muhammad was not an impostor. Voltaire defended Muhammad as a great thinker and founder of a rational religion even as he (and other Enlightenment critics of organized religion) condemned Islam quite acerbically. Daniel explains Voltaire’s contradictory stances: “We must say that Voltaire first thought an attack on Islam useful for an attack on religion generally; and later saw the advantage of treating the facts less passionately, in order to recommend natural religion at the expense of Christian belief.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 91 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

For Enlightenment philosophers, there is evidence of what Benedict Robinson has called a “crisis of representation,” the struggle between humanism and the imagination evident in the treatment of Muhammad and Islam in general, which wavers between a measured rationalism and polemical superstition. Leibniz was one of several philosophers who faced this crisis in his writings: Was Muhammad an enlightened thinker, a medieval humanist, or a force of destruction and evil? — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 360 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

For British and American audiences, the menace of Islam existed at a variety of different levels. Politically, socially, religiously, and theologically, Muslims and their religion were seen to threaten in varying degrees and in different ways Britain and America, secularism and Christianity. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 41 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Enlightenment thinkers produced contradictory, instrumentally motivated views of Islam — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 91; Enlightenment philosophers wavered between rational and superstitious treatments of Muhammad — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 360; Philological analysis of key texts established Muslims as static subspecies (+2 more)

Related

• Enlightenment philosophers wavered between rational and superstitious treatments of Muhammad (similarity 0.90)
• Enlightenment rationalists framed Muslims as intellectually incapable due to their religion. (similarity 0.89)
• Enlightenment thinkers produced contradictory, instrumentally motivated views of Islam (similarity 0.88)
• Enlightenment thought held contradictory views of Muhammad (similarity 0.88)
• Leibniz’s shifting portrayals of Muhammad reveal an ideological transition in anti-Muslim discourse (similarity 0.85)
• Leibniz held shifting, contradictory images of Muslims within one mind (similarity 0.83)
• Locke’s toleration simultaneously depicted Muslims as both dangerous and tolerable (similarity 0.83)
• Islamophobia operated at multiple political and theological levels for both audiences. (similarity 0.83)
• Philological analysis of key texts established Muslims as static subspecies (similarity 0.82)
• Enlightenment thinkers retained older anti-Muslim stereotypes (similarity 0.81)
• Enlightenment reason is used as a stick against Muslims in multicultural states (similarity 0.81)
• Vituperative anti-Islamic polemic persisted into the 1780s and 1790s. (similarity 0.81)
• Eighteenth-century rationalists recycled medieval Muslim stereotypes (similarity 0.80)
• Renaissance scholarship long coexisted with unrevised medieval views of Islam. (similarity 0.80)
• Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Enlightenment thinkers produced contradictory, instrumentally motivated views of Islam #corroborates (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 91
• Enlightenment philosophers wavered between rational and superstitious treatments of Muhammad #corroborates (0.75) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 360
• Islamophobia operated at multiple political and theological levels for both audiences. #expands (0.55) — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 41
• Philological analysis of key texts established Muslims as static subspecies #expands (0.50)