A digitised approach to the political history of early modern critique (1500-1700)

Critique represents a fundamental notion of modern European societies.

It is, at least according to our own self-understanding, by thinking and acting critically that is, by thinking for ourselves and by resisting authority that we distinguish ourselves from societies that came before us and from those with which we continue to co-exist.

However, in stark contrast to critiques contemporary political importance, exemplified by its enthronement in educational institutions and its consecration by the labour market, the specifically political aspects of critiques history remain either taken for granted or acutely underexplored.How did it come to be that the concept of critique self-evidently implies the emancipatory ability to think for oneself?

When and how did the concept of critique become inseparably tied with the revolutionary imperative to resist authority? What were the general ideological assumptions and specific political implications of these conceptualisations?

Which social groups championed such a comprehension of critique and which historical struggles structured its conceptual elaboration?

Against which rival comprehensions, antagonistic social entities, and conflicting political agendas, did this version of critique establish itself as the legitimate and the dominant one?Amid growing theoretical concerns related to critiques intellectual, social, and political efficiency, answers to these historical questions are urgently needed if critical thought and critical action are to maintain their central role in the functioning of modern European societies.DEPICT will contribute to this endeavour in a timely manner, by providing an original account of the socio-economic, confessional, and political coordinates of the emergence of the concept of critique in the early modern period and of the various ideologies structuring its mobilisation in the 16th and 17th century.