The sources of rationalism in Croatia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A study of less obvious cases (physics, theology, and politics)

The paper is an attempt to describe the reception of the idea of rationalism in order to represent its reworking in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Croatia in three areas – physics, theology and politics. The authoress reveals how the method developed by Newton in the field of natural sciences has found an application in other disciplines of knowledge, and most of all in theology. In Croatia, this resulted in the application of the category of Kantian reason to ethical considerations. As a rationalist project in the field of politics, cameralism is indicated, an economic doctrine popular in the German and Austrian territories which was closely connected with the development of the enlightened monarchy and bureaucracy in the early modern period.The paper is an attempt to describe the reception of the idea of rationalism in order to represent its reworking in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Croatia in three areas – physics, theology and politics. The authoress reveals how the method developed by Newton in the field of natural sciences has found an application in other disciplines of knowledge, and most of all in theology. In Croatia, this resulted in the application of the category of Kantian reason to ethical considerations. As a rationalist project in the field of politics, cameralism is indicated, an economic doctrine popular in the German and Austrian territories which was closely connected with the development of the enlightened monarchy and bureaucracy in the early modern period