#  The ‘Western’ Mind: The Origins of a Myth, 1700–1800 

 



    ![Western Mind Poster Image](/sites/g/files/omnuum9471/files/styles/hwp_5_4__480x385/public/2026-04/Screenshot%202026-04-02%20at%2012.00.14%E2%80%AFPM.png?itok=mX9gQZfR) 

 



 

####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **April 27, 2026** 

 05:30PM - 07:00PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **CGIS S250, Harvard University, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge MA**  



 

 



 

Co-sponsored by the Early Modern Workshop in the Department of History and the International and Global History Seminar, Harvard University.

Speaker: **Dmitri Levitin** (Oxford)

---

Abstract:   
In 1800, German writers started offering genealogies of modernity running  
from classical Athens (especially its philosophers), through early Christianity  
(considered a Greek rather than a Jewish phenomenon, at least in spirit), to  
modern 'enlightened' Protestantism. A century earlier, this genealogy would  
have been unthinkable. For in 1700, every European intellectual would have  
agreed that Greek philosophy was not qualitatively different from its ‘oriental’  
counterpart, and that Christianity had emerged directly from Judaism.  
Combining intellectual and social history, this lecture will provide a new  
account of how this peculiar Eurocentrism emerged, and why it proved so  
successful, coming to be deployed in political debates about Jewish  
emancipation and the abolition of Atlantic slavery. Moreover, it will identify the  
origins of some long-lasting concepts and ideas: (1) the distinction between  
‘Pauline’ and ‘Jewish’ Christianity; (2) the distinction between ‘pre-’ and ‘post-  
Socratic’ philosophy; (3) a ‘Greek miracle’ in intellectual history; (4) the earliest  
full conspiracy theory about a Jewish politico-economic plot to take over the  
world; (5) the first fears of a ‘Great Replacement’ of native Europeans by  
immigrants. It will suggest that the parallel appearance of these concepts was  
not unconnected.



 

Embed



 





 

 

 

---

 Attachments- [  picture\_as\_pdf  Western Mind Poster.pdf ](/sites/g/files/omnuum9471/files/2026-04/Western%20Mind%20Poster.pdf)
 
---

 



 

 See also:- [ Conferences and Lectures ](/event-categories/conferences-and-lectures)
 
 

 Share on:- [     Facebook ](#)
- [     Twitter ](#)
- [     Linkedin ](#)
 


 Save: [ Add to calendar calendar\_today ](https://earlymodernworld.fas.harvard.edu/node/1936451/event-feed.ics)  Copy link link