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Cornelius de Pauw

Amsterdam 1739-08-19 – 1799-07-05 Xanten French, German Main: Kleve Other: Berlin , Liège cleric diplomat philosopher De Pauw, Cornélius, 1739-1799 (viaf) Cornelius de Pauw (wikidata)

Contributions

  1. Recherches philosophiques sur les Américains, ou Mémoires intéressants pour servir à l'histoire de l'espèce humaine: Par Mr. de P*** has translation author
  2. Recherches Philosophiques sur les Grecs has translation author

Knows

Notes

De Pauw was an armchair scholar widely considered as Europe's leading authority on the Americas despite never having visited the continent. His ideas came under heavy criticism from many of his contemporaries, including Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and Jesuit missionaries who worked out there. He is the perfect example of someone who occupied centre-stage in their lifetime, only to be almost completely forgotten by posterity. From 1768, when his work first appeared until the outbreak of the French Revolution, he was at the heart of cultural discussions, provoking controversies which occupied countless hours of debate in Europe's leading academies and learned societies. His books, which went through many editions, were translated into English, Dutch, German and Italian.

His nephew Anacharsis Cloots, self-styled "citizen of the world", who was guillotined in March 1794 during the Reign of Terror, described him as one of the three main sources for the ideas behind the French Revolution, alongside Rousseau and Voltaire.