Western philosophy: Enlightenment Books

Book SynopsisAn intellectual biography of the renowned and influential observer of the era of tyranniesElie Halevy (1870-1937) was one of the most respected and influential intellectuals of the French Third Republic. In this densely contextualized biography, K. Steven Vincent describes how Halevy, best remembered as the historian of British Utilitarianism and nineteenth-century English history, was also a persistent, acute, and increasingly anxious observer of society in a period defined by industrialization and imperialism and by what Halevy famously called the era of tyrannies.Vincent distinguishes three broad phases in the development of Halevy's thought. In the first, Halevy brought his version of neo-Kantianism to debates with sociologists and philosophers and to his study of English Utilitarianism. He forged ties with Xavier Leon, Leon Brunschvicg, and Alain (Emile-Auguste Chartier), life-long intellectual interlocutors. Together they founded the Revue de metaphysique et de morale, a continuiTrade Review"[An] outstanding achievement...[Vincent's book] will now be a key point of departure for anyone who wants to understand the intellectual culture of French liberalism in the Third Republic and, indeed, for anyone in search of the roots of the liberal revival initiated by Halévy’s friend and disciple Raymond Aron." * Journal of Modern History *"Incorporating cutting-edge scholarship to produce sophisticated and balanced analytical summaries of Élie Halévy's work, K. Steven Vincent has written a masterful intellectual biography that should appeal to historians, political theorists, and philosophers alike." * Helena Rosenblatt, Graduate Center-CUNY *"K. Steven Vincent excels at intellectual biography and, in this latest book, deploys all available sources to get at the roots and substance of Élie Halévy's thinking. The result is a deftly organized, lucidly written, comprehensive, and meticulous exposition of Halévy's considerable and varied opus that successfully captures his complexity and depth." * Susan Ashley, Colorado College *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I. Neo-Kantianism and British Radicalism Chapter 1. The Early Years Chapter 2. Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale Chapter 3. British Utilitarianism (1896-1904) Part II. French Politics, European Socialism, and British History Chapter 4. The Dreyfus Affair (1897-1901) Chapter 5. L'École Libre des Sciences Politiques and Socialism (1902-1914) Chapter 6. British Affairs: Empire, Methodism, and English Socialists (1905-1914) Part III. World War I and the State of Europe in the Era of Tyrannies Chapter 7. World War I (1914-1918) Chapter 8. Post War (1918-1924) Chapter 9. "The World Crisis" Reconsidered (1924-1932) Chapter 10. The Era of Tyrannies (1932-1937) Conclusion Notes Index Acknowledgments

Read more less

Book SynopsisUnnerved by the upheavals of the seventeenth century, English writers including Thomas Hobbes, Richard Blackmore, John Locke, Jonathan Swift, and Daniel Defoe came to accept that disorder, rather than order, was the natural state of things. They were drawn to voluntarism, a theology that emphasized a willful creator and denied that nature embodied truth and beauty. Voluntarism, Wolfram Schmidgen contends, provided both theological framework and aesthetic license. In Infinite Variety, he reconstructs this voluntarist tradition of literary invention. Once one accepted that creation was willful and order arbitrary, Schmidgen argues, existing hierarchies of kind lost their normative value. Literary invention could be radicalized as a result. Acknowledging that the will drives creation, such writers as Blackmore and Locke inverted the rules of composition and let energy dominate structure, matter create form, and parts be valued over the whole. In literary, religious, and philosophical woTrade ReviewThis book is a striking achievement, confident in its abstractions and their utility in illuminating a shared intellectual and aesthetic preoccupation. * Modern Philology *Part of the recent movement in eighteenth-century studies to resist the teleological secularization narrative that has governed much of the literary and cultural criticism in the field, Infinite Variety is also one of the most stimulating, original, and erudite books I've read in some time. Wolfram Schmidgen makes a cogent, compelling, and historically grounded case for the imaginative power of literature at a moment of epistemological crisis. * Helen Deutsch, University of California Los Angeles *In Infinite Variety, Wolfram Schmidgen offers a fresh perspective on literary invention in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century England...[T]he perspective of this book is generous and valuable and...readers of all persuasions interested in the early modern history of literature, culture and ideas will be thankful to it for its fertile insights and provocations. * The Seventeenth Century *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. Toward a Voluntarist Aesthetic Chapter 2. Glorious Arbitrariness: Science, Religion, and the Imagination of Infinite Variety Chapter 3. Energy and Structure: Remaking the Given in Blackmore and Pope Chapter 4. Embarrassed Invention: Stillingfleet, Locke, and the Style of Voluntarism Chapter 5. The Constructive Swift: Between the Hope and Fear of Decomposition Chapter 6. The Providence of Gathering and Scattering: Dynamic Variety in Defoe Conclusion Notes Index Acknowledgments

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe memoir of Dmitrii Ivanovich Rostislavov—a mathematician, teacher, and social critic—offers a rare firsthand view of provincial Russia in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Translated into English for the first time, these extraordinary observations reveal much about daily village life and the cultural milieu of the time. An acute observer, Rostislavov discusses social and ethnic relationships as well as matters pertaining to education, law enforcement, religious practice, and folk beliefs. Rostislavov''s account of his own education is a harrowing description of coming of age in a Darwinian world of violence and cruelty. Coarse, impoverished schoolboys, brutal and corrupt teachers, and callous landlords formed a harsh environment characterized by sadistic corporal punishment and bitter class hatreds. Variously humorous, elegiac, and passionate, his narrative shows why even those from relatively privileged backgrounds came to detest the aTable of ContentsTable of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Translator's Introduction Preface: My Goals and Intentions in Writing My Memoir 1. My Family Background 2. The Village of Palishchi and Its Environs 3. A Village Household 4. Corporal Punishment at Home 5. My Early Education 6. My Family Moves to Tuma 7. Outlaws and Law Enforcement 8. Our Home Life in Tuma 9. Hospitality 10. Household Work 11. Agricultural Work 12. Community Life in Tuma 13. How the Clergy Would Tour the Parish 14. The Kasimov Church School 15. The Church-School Students 16. My Life in Kasimov 17. Society in Kasimov 18. The Tatars of Kasimov 19. Governor-General Balashov 20. The Merchant Riumin 21. The Death of the Tsar Endnotes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisDmitrii Ivanoich Rostislavov was a mathematician, teacher and social critic in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Translated into English for the first time, his observations on daily life reveal the cultural milieu and issues of his time.Table of ContentsTable of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Translator's Introduction Preface: My Goals and Intentions in Writing My Memoir 1. My Family Background 2. The Village of Palishchi and Its Environs 3. A Village Household 4. Corporal Punishment at Home 5. My Early Education 6. My Family Moves to Tuma 7. Outlaws and Law Enforcement 8. Our Home Life in Tuma 9. Hospitality 10. Household Work 11. Agricultural Work 12. Community Life in Tuma 13. How the Clergy Would Tour the Parish 14. The Kasimov Church School 15. The Church-School Students 16. My Life in Kasimov 17. Society in Kasimov 18. The Tatars of Kasimov 19. Governor-General Balashov 20. The Merchant Riumin 21. The Death of the Tsar Endnotes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis volume examines the full spectrum of John Locke s contributions as a celebrated philosopher, empiricist, and father ofmodern political theory. This unprecedented collection of essays reveals Locke s life and legacy of his theories on metaphysics, epistemology, government, ethics, society, and religion.Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors ix References to Locke’sWorks xvi Introduction 1Matthew Stuart Part I Life and Background 25 1 Locke’s Life 27Mark Goldie 2 The Contexts of Locke’s Political Thought 45Jacqueline Rose 3 Locke and Natural Philosophy 64Peter R. Anstey 4 Locke and Scholasticism 82E.J. Ashworth 5 Locke and Descartes 100Lisa Downing Part II Metaphysics and Epistemology 121 6 The Genesis and Composition of the Essay 123J. R. Milton 7 The Theory of Ideas 140David Soles 8 Locke’s Critique of Innatism 157Raffaella De Rosa 9 Locke on Perception 175Michael Jacovides 10 Primary and Secondary Qualities 193Robert A.Wilson 11 Locke on Essence and the Social Construction of Kinds 212Kenneth P.Winkler 12 Locke’s Theory of Identity 236Dan Kaufman 13 Liberty and Suspension in Locke’s Theory of theWill 260Don Garrett 14 Language and Meaning 279E.J. Lowe 15 Locke on Knowledge and Belief 296Antonia LoLordo 16 Sensitive Knowledge: Locke on Skepticism and Sensation 313Jennifer Nagel 17 Locke on Thinking Matter 334Martha Brandt Bolton 18 The Correspondence with Stillingfleet 354Matthew Stuart Part III Government, Ethics, and Society 371 19 Locke on the Law of Nature and Natural Rights 373S. Adam Seagrave 20 Locke on Property and Money 394Richard Boyd 21 Locke on the Social Contract 413A. John Simmons 22 Locke on Toleration 433Alex Tuckness 23 Locke on Education 448Ruth W. Grant and Benjamin R. Hertzberg Part IV Religion 467 24 Locke’s Philosophy of Religion 469Marcy P. Lascano 25 The Reasonableness of Christianity and A Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St Paul 486Victor Nuovo Part V Locke’s Legacy 503 26 Locke and British Empiricism 505Louis E. Loeb 27 Locke and the Liberal Tradition 528Richard J. Arneson 28 Locke and America 546Mark Goldie Index 564

Read more less

Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1963. Perhaps the most generative ethical question of eighteenth-century France was how to live a virtuous and happy life at the same time. During the Age of Enlightenment, Christianity fell out of vogue as the dominant and authoritative moral code. In place of Christianity's emphasis on sin and redemption in light of a supposed afterlife, present happiness became recognized as an appropriate end goal among French Enlightenment thinkers. French intellectuals struggled to find equilibrium between nature (a person's individual goals and needs) and culture (the political, economic, and social organization of humans for a collective good). Enlightenment discourse generated a unique cultural moment in which thinkers addressed the problems of humans' moral coexistence through the dichotomy of nature and culture. Lester Crocker addresses these questions in an overview of ethical thought in eighteenth-century France.Table of ContentsIntroductionChapter 1. Natural LawI. A Brief Historical ViewII. Natural Law in Eighteenth-Century FranceIII. Variations and Vicissitudes of Natural Law TheoryChapter 2. Moral Sense TheoriesChapter 3. Experiential Origins of Moral ValuesChapter 4. CorollariesI. ConscienceII. Justice and LawIII. Reason and FeelingChapter 5. The Utilitarian SynthesisI. HedonismII. Social UtilitarianismIII. Virtue and HappinessIV. Altruism and Anti-utilitarianismChapter 6. The Nihilist DissolutionI. The Seeds of NihilismII. Sade and the fieurs du malChapter 7. Ethics and PoliticsEpilogueSupplementary BibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisComposed in a period of religious and political upheaval, Culverwell's Discourse of the Light of Nature is an imaginative statement of the teachings of Christian humanism concerning the nature and limits of human reason and the related concepts of natural and divine law. The lengthy introduction to this new critical edition throws light on the evolution of English rationalism in the seventeenth century, and the annotation establishes for the first time the full range of Culverwell's sources – classical, medieval, and Renaissance – and enables the reader to appreciate his manner of citing authority and handling illustration.(Department of English Studies and Texts 17)

Read more less

Book SynopsisForceful and provocative, The Matter of Mind will encourage lively debate on the norms and discourses of seventeenth-century philosophy.Trade Review'All of them [readers] will most likely be impressed with the intellectual range and critical acumen displayed by Braider throughout this highly stimulating study.' -- Edward Ousselin French Studies, vol 66:04:2012 'This book is a thought provoking contribution to early modern French studies.' -- Paul Scott French Review vol 88:02:2014Table of ContentsIntroduction. Experience and the Matter of Mind: Dualism, Classicism, and the Myth of the Modern Subject in Seventeenth-Century France * Front Matter: Placing Descarte's Meditations* A State of Mind: Embodying the Sovereign in Poussin's Judgment of Solomon* The Witch from Colchis: Coreneille's M dee, Chim ne's Le Cid, and the Invention of Classical Genius* Seeing is Believing: Image and Imaginaire in Moli re's Sganarelle* The Ghost in the Machine: Reason, Faith, and Experience in Pascalian Apologetics*Des mots sans fin: Meaning and the End(s) of History in Boileau's Satire XII, "Sur l'Equivoque"

Read more less

Book SynopsisMind, Body, Motion, Matter investigates the relationship between the eighteenth century's two predominant approaches to the natural world in the works of leading British and French writers such as Daniel Defoe, William Hogarth, Laurence Sterne, the third Earl of Shaftesbury and Denis Diderot.Trade Review'This commendable volume will be of interest to scholars active in eighteenth-century studies as well as those whose work borders on this field.' -- Matthew Rowney Eighteenth Century Fiction vol 29:03:2017Table of ContentsIntroduction Mary Helen McMurran Part One: Pre-Reflective Experience 1 Hogarth's Practical Aesthetics Ruth Mack 2 Presence of Mind: An Ecology of Perception in Eighteenth-Century England Jonathan Kramnick 3 Reading Locke After Shaftesbury: Feeling Our Way Towards a Postsecular Genealogy of Religious Tolerance David Alvarez 4 Rethinking Superstition: Pagan Ritual in Lafitau's Moeurs des sauvages Mary Helen McMurran Part Two: Materialisms 5 Defoe on Spiritual Communication, Action at a Distance, and the Mind in Motion Sara Landreth 6 The Persistence of Clarissa Sarah Ellenzweig 7 The Early-Modern Embodied Mind and the Entomology Imaginary Kate E. Tunstall 8 Diderot's Brain Joanna Stalnaker Conclusion: Can Aesthetics Overcome Instrumental Reason? The Need for Judgment in Mandeville's Fable of the Bees Vivasvan Soni

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Time of Enlightenment investigates how a new idea of the future emerged with the development of modern practices in France from 1750 to Year One, the first year of the Republican calendar that marked the Revolutionary caesura in time.Trade Review“Scholars interested in the growing literature on the history of time, progress, and the future will find this book valuable reading. It is a careful but clear work on intellectual history, one with particular relevance for understanding the significance of the French Revolution.” -- Meghan K. Roberts, Bowdoin College * H-France Review *“In this insightful, richly researched, and theoretically astute work, William Max Nelson views the Enlightenment not as era, movement, or project, but as ‘attempts to develop new ways of being in the world that could come to grips with the erosion of traditional notions of God and legitimating narratives of political authority and social hierarchy.’ … This book is a valuable and thought-provoking contribution to that process.” -- Daniel Brewer, University of Minnesota * French Studies *“This wide-ranging book makes a valuable contribution to a still fragmentary field of historical time studies.” -- Sanja Perovic, King’s College London * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Making Time Different: Historical Change and the Laws of Nature 2. Living the Future: Ideas of Progress and Uncanny Temporality 3. “The Explosion of Light”: The Economic Order and the Scientific Revelation of the Future 4. Generating Time: Buffon and the Biological Instruments of Futurity 5. The Time of Regeneration: Renewal, Rupture, and Beginning Anew in the French Revolution Conclusion: Colonizing the Future Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn unconventional introduction to Heidegger's thinking, this book reads like a very personal and meaningful encounter with Heidegger's major contributions to philosophy.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Admonitions, Reminders 1. The Conditions in Which We Find Ourselves 2. Setting the Stage 3. Guideposts for This Work 4. First Moment: Heidegger and Nondual Thinking, Inseparable Phenomenon　 5. Second Moment: Heidegger and Nonconceptual Language as Saying　 6. Third Moment: Heidegger and the Symbiosis of Translation and Thinking, from Saying　 7. Fourth Moment: Heidegger and Engaging in the Retrieval of Greek Thinking-Saying 　 8. Fifth Moment: Time-Space as Ab-Ground

Read more less

Book SynopsisFive Groundbreaking Moments in Heidegger’s Thinking presents a fresh interpretation of some of Heidegger’s most difficult but important works, including his second major work, Beiträge zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis) [Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning)]. The careful approach shows how, for Heidegger, the acts of reading, thinking, and saying all move beyond the theoretical/conceptual and become an ongoing experience. In new translations of central texts, Kenneth Maly invites the reader to think along the way by reading, contemplating, and translating Heidegger’s ideas into this context. An introduction to the field of philosophy and more specifically to Heidegger’s thought, Five Groundbreaking Moments in Heidegger’s Thinking asks the reader, in some manner, to actively engage in thinking.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Admonitions, Reminders 1. The Conditions in Which We Find Ourselves 2. Setting the Stage 3. Guideposts for This Work 4. First Moment: Heidegger and Nondual Thinking, Inseparable Phenomenon　 5. Second Moment: Heidegger and Nonconceptual Language as Saying　 6. Third Moment: Heidegger and the Symbiosis of Translation and Thinking, from Saying　 7. Fourth Moment: Heidegger and Engaging in the Retrieval of Greek Thinking-Saying 　 8. Fifth Moment: Time-Space as Ab-Ground

Read more less

Book SynopsisLeibniz's theory of knowledge, unlike his logic and metaphysics, has until now received little attention from philosophers.This book attempts to give coherence to the elements of his epistemology, scattered as they are throughout his writings, by seeking to determine what Leibniz meant when, on three occasions and each time without explanation, he said that thought and the faculty of understanding are the products of the conjoining of apperception and perception. To discover what he meant is to arrive at his conception of what on the side of the mind constitutes the necessary and sufficient conditions of knowledge.Almost half of the study is taken up with Leibniz's theory of perception -- with its initially strange notion of perception as expression and as activity -- and with such questions as: What is sensation and how is it related to perception and apperception? How are the soul's perceptions produced? The answer to the last question involves a new look at Leibniz'

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn examination of how and why Scotland gained its reputation for the supernatural, and how belief continued to flourish in a supposed Age of Enlightenment. SHORTLISTED for the Katharine Briggs Award 2019 Scotland is famed for being a haunted nation, "whare ghaists and houlets nightly cry". Medieval Scots told stories of restless souls and walking corpses, but after the 1560Reformation, witches and demons became the focal point for explorations of the supernatural. Ghosts re-emerged in scholarly discussion in the late seventeenth century, often in the guise of religious propagandists. As time went on, physicians increasingly reframed ghosts as the conjurations of disturbed minds, but gothic and romantic literature revelled in the emotive power of the returning dead; they were placed against a backdrop of ancient monasteries,castles and mouldering ruins, and authors such as Robert Burns, James Hogg and Walter Scott drew on the macabre to colour their depictions of Scottish life. Meanwhile, folk culture used apparitions to talk about morality and mortality. Focusing on the period from 1685 to 1830, this book provides the first academic study of the history of Scottish ghosts. Drawing on a wide range of sources, and examining beliefs across the social spectrum, it shows howghost stories achieved a new prominence in a period that is more usually associated with the rise of rationalism. In exploring perceptions of ghosts, it also reflects on understandings of death and the afterlife; the constructionof national identity; and the impact of the Enlightenment. MARTHA MCGILL completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh.Trade ReviewMcGill's thorough examination of the archive concerning ghosts in Enlightenment Scotland demonstrates the value of careful cultural historical work. * EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION *[A] pioneering study. [...] McGill has produced an extensive and well researched exploration of ghost lore. [A] welcome contribution to scholars across a wide variety of fields. -- INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF SCOTTISH STUDIES[An] excellent study. * FOLKLORE *An excellent book that provides a new and effective approach to a complicated topic. * SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY *[A]n impressive entrylevel book into the cultural importance of ghosts in Scottish history and a most welcome addition to academic studies of the supernatural. * PRETERNATURE *An enticing, well researched study composed of five carefully structured chapters, each possessing a conclusion that elegantly synthesizes its main points. * REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES *Martha McGill's beautifully written study of ghosts as cultural signifiers provides an important contribution to a growing number of studies into the social and cultural significance of belief in the paranormal. . . . For those readers unconvinced of the value of studying belief in the supernatural as a way into understanding societies and cultures, I would encourage you to sit down with this book. If it does not change your mind, nothing will. And, even if your mind remains unchanged, it is a thoroughly enjoyable read. -- Christopher Partridge * Journal of British Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction Medieval and Reformation Ghosts Evangelising Ghosts Scepticism and Debate Gothic and Romantic Ghosts Ghosts in Popular Culture Conclusion Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA new intellectual biography of Thomas Babington Macaulay, showing how nineteenth-century British liberal culture retained and transformed the ideas of the Enlightenment in a rapidly changing world. Macaulay and the Enlightenment sheds new light on both familiar and unfamiliar aspects of the life and ideas of this most famous of nineteenth-century British historians. Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) was a prominent representative of mainstream British liberalism in the first half of the nineteenth century. He was also a Member of Parliament and government minister, and famously spent several years as a member of the governing council in India, where he promoted legal and educational reforms. One of the book's key contributions is the investigation of Enlightenment influences on the more well-known aspects of Macaulay's thought: history, politics, social and economic issues, religion, revolution and colonialism. The book also offers new revelations about Macaulay's attitude towards women, and provides insight into his views on art, nature and animals. In this study, Macaulay emerges as a more subversive, at times even radical, figure than previously assumed. The book thus emphasizes the transformation of Enlightenment ideas into early nineteenth-century liberalism.Trade ReviewNo one else has brought all the different strands of Macaulay's intellectual and general biography together as fully, objectively and skifully as Wolloch does here. * Jonathan Israel, Professor Emeritus, Institute of Advanced Study. *Table of Contents1 . The Enlightenment and Historical Progress 2. Politics, Democracy, and Religious Toleration 3. History and Biography 4. Revolutions 5. Colonialism and Cultural Progress 6. Political Economy and Society 7. Macaulay's Women 8. Nature and Animals 9. Art and Artistic Style Conclusion Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisJamais, dans aucune autre période de l’histoire, le problème pénal n’a été aussi débattu qu’au siècle des Lumières. Or, l’événement déclencheur de ces débats est la publication des Délits et des peines, le petit livre de Cesare Beccaria dont la première édition paraît à Livourne en 1764. On assiste, après cette date et durant un demi-siècle, à une profusion impressionnante de réactions et de prolongements directement liés à cet ouvrage. À tel point que, pour désigner cette période, on a pu parler d’un ‘moment Beccaria’.Les recherches rassemblées dans ce volume explorent différents foyers thématiques et géographiques (Allemagne, Angleterre, France, Italie) de cette phase inédite et fondatrice de l’histoire européenne du droit de punir. Pourquoi cette soudaine publicité du problème pénal? Comment s’est-elle manifestée, par quels canaux, sous quelles formes théoriques et matérielles?Comme le montre cet ouvrage, le droit pénal moderne est né d’un livre, mais aussi de ses interprétations: il est né des idées de Beccaria et des débats qu’elles ont provoqués. Ces deux sources se sont croisées et ne peuvent se comprendre l’une sans l’autre.---Throughout history, criminal law was never more discussed than during the Age of Enlightenment. The debates started after the publication of a small book by Cesare Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishments, in Livorno in 1764. For fifty years from that date, reactions and additions to the book proliferated so much that this period is called by some "the Beccaria moment".The contributions in this volume explore different thematic and geographical areas (Germany, England, France, Italy) to explore that innovative and foundational moment in the European history of criminal law. Why was the criminal problem suddenly publicised? How did those interrogations manifest? Which theoretical and material forms did they take? This volume shows that modern criminal law originates in a book, and also in its interpretations – in Beccaria's ideas and the debates they started. Those two sources interacted and now cannot be understood separately.Table of ContentsPhilippe Audegean et Luigi Delia, Introduction: les deux sources de la modernité pénaleI. Enthousiasmes et condamnationsEthel Groffier, Voltaire vulgarisateur de BeccariaAlberto Bondolfi, Beccaria et la religion: la réaction de facchinei et du saint-office II. Pourquoi punir?Christophe Béal, Beccaria et le réformisme pénal en Angleterre (1764-1790)Pietro Costa, ‘Un sentiment d’humanité affecté’: Kant critique de BeccariaLuigi Delia, ‘Ramener le coupable à la vertu’: la philanthropie pénale de Charles-Louis-Fleury Panckoucke iii. Réformer la procédure pénaleAnnamaria Monti, Réformer l’arbitraire judiciaire: un débat complexe à la croisée des savoirsEmmanuelle de Champs, Réforme juridique, réforme politique: le jury populaire chez Beccaria, Condorcet et BenthamWolfgang Rother, Un aspect des discussions beccariennes en Allemagne: la psychologie criminelle de Johann Christian Gottlieb Schaumann iv. Comment punir?Dario Ippolito, ‘Pour qu’une peine ne soit pas une violence...’: formes et modalités des sanctions pénales dans la philosophie des LumièresNorbert Campagna, Sonnenfels, Beccaria et la peine de mortFrancesco Berti, Un ‘beccarien’ avant la lettre? La philosophie pénale de Tommaso Natale Annexe: le moment Beccaria dans les Etats italiens (1765-1806)RésumésRéférences et compléments bibliographiquesIndex des noms

Read more less

Book SynopsisAlthough many historical narratives often describe the eighteenth century as an unalloyed ‘Age of Reason’, Enlightenment thinkers continued to grapple with the challenges posed by the revival and spread of philosophical skepticism. The imperative to overcome doubt and uncertainty informed some of the most innovative characteristics of eighteenth-century intellectual culture, including not only debates about epistemology and metaphysics but also matters of jurisprudence, theology, history, moral philosophy, and politics. Thinkers of this period debated about, established, and productively worked for progress within the parameters of the increasingly circumscribed boundaries of human reason. No longer considered innate and consistently perfect, reason instead became conceived as a faculty that was inherently fallible, limited by personal experiences, and in need of improvement throughout the course of any individual’s life. In its depiction of a complicated, variegated, and diverse Enlightenment culture, this volume examines the process by which philosophical skepticism was challenged and gradually tamed to bring about an anxious confidence in the powers of human understanding. The various contributions collectively demonstrate that philosophical skepticism, and not simply unshakable confidence in the powers of reason or the optimistic assumption about inevitable human improvement, was, in fact, the crucible of the Enlightenment process itself. Trade Review'All in all, this is a volume which should be read by every scholar of the eighteenth century, of the history of ideas, and of the history of religion.''The editors are to be congratulated for bringing to fruition this volume of essays, and for making a clear and convincing argument for the importance of skepticism in the Enlightenment.'Dorinda Outram, H-France Review * H-France Review *'The new wave of the scholarship on skepticism that emerges from this [book] is really impressive and will mark a cornerstone for the study of eighteenth-century philosophy.' Gianni Paganini, Erudition and the Republic of LettersTable of ContentsAnton M. Matytsin and Jeffrey D. Burson, Introduction: from an “age Of skepticism” to an “age Of reason” Jeffrey D. Burson, Healing the skeptical crisis and rectifying Cartesianisms: the notion of the Jesuit synthesis revisited Elena Rapetti, “A man who sticks only to his own sentiments”: Pierre-Daniel Huet’s Traité philosophique de la foiblesse de l’esprit humain Martin Mulsow and John Christian Laursen, Georg Michael Heber on legal and (possibly) religious skepticism in early Enlightenment Germany Sébastien Charles, George Berkeley, or the skeptic in spite of himself Rodrigo Brandão, Voltaire and modern skeptical doubt John P. Wright, Skepticism and incomprehensibility in Bayle and Hume Anton M. Matytsin, Taming thought with practice: philosophical skepticism in the Encyclopédie Alan Charles Kors, Political skepticism in Holbach’s circle Summaries Biographies of contributors Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisLa France est une nation légère – ce lieu commun antique est abondamment repris tout au long du XVIIIe siècle, témoignant de profonds bouleversements axiologiques, scientifiques et éthiques, dont ce volume collectif cherche à mesurer l’importance et les enjeux, en racontant l’histoire d’un autre siècle des Lumières : celle d’un siècle de la Légèreté. Propre aux représentations que le XVIIIe siècle français construit de lui-même, tant par rapport aux siècles qui l’ont précédé que dans une logique de parallèle entre les nations européennes, la légèreté du XVIIIe siècle est un important paradigme de l’historiographie qui s’est constituée sitôt après la Révolution. Les héritiers du XVIIIe siècle ne reconnaissent pas seulement en lui l’âge de la raison et du progrès, des Lumières et des droits du citoyen, mais éprouvent aussi tantôt du mépris, tantôt de la nostalgie pour la prétendue légèreté de ses mœurs, la futilité de ses goûts ou la frivolité de ses enfantillages. Entre la bourgeoisie industrieuse du XIXe siècle tirant profit des représentations voluptueuses des fêtes galantes et l’intérêt de notre époque célébrant l’aimable frivolité du siècle de Marie-Antoinette, le XVIIIe siècle en sa légèreté n’a jamais cessé de séduire certes, mais aussi de questionner le récit progressiste de la raison et de l’utilité dans la définition des valeurs qui fondent notre communauté.Aussi importe-t-il d’interroger les conceptions et les valeurs qui sont associées à la notion de légèreté au XVIIIe siècle, de manière à mieux comprendre dans quelle mesure elle a pu être associée à la fois au caractère de la nation française en général et au XVIIIe siècle en particulier. --- The age-old cliché that France is a light-hearted nation is echoed repeatedly throughout the eighteenth century and bears witness to the deep axiological, scientific and ethical upheavals which this volume explores. By analysing the importance of, and issues at stake in, these transformations, the articles gathered here tell the story of another age of Enlightenment: the story of an age of lightness.Lightness is at the crux of how the French eighteenth century represents itself both in contrast with previous centuries and through parallels between European nations. The concept of lightness therefore constitutes an essential paradigm of the historiography that developed immediately after the French Revolution. The intellectual heirs of the eighteenth century do not only find in this period an age of reason, progress, Enlightenment and citizens’ rights; they also feel, at times, contempt, at other times, nostalgia for the alleged lightness of its mores, the futility of its taste or the frivolity of its childish ways. Between the industrious bourgeoisie of the 19th century exploiting the voluptuous representations of fêtes galantes and the fascination of our own 21st century for the delightful frivolity of Marie-Antoinette’s era, the 18th century in its lightness has never lost its charm. Yet, crucially, it also challenges the progressive narrative of the history of reason and usefulness in the definition of the very values on which our community is built. It is therefore essential to analyse the concepts and values associated to the notion of lightness in the 18th century. Such an approach yields breakthroughs in understanding why, and to what extent, this idea of lightness has been related to the French national character in general as well as, more particularly, to its 18th century.Table of ContentsListe des illustrations Remerciements Marine Ganofsky et Jean-Alexandre Perras, Introduction: un siècle de légèreté? Patrick Wald Lasowski, Palpable! Marine Ganofsky, Le paradis artificiel de la légèreté dans les arts libertins: l’exemple d’Angola de La MorlièreMaxime Triquenaux, ‘S’amuser, et quelquefois amuser les autres, en leur rappelant ce qui n’existe plus’: la mémoire de la légèreté nobiliaire dans les Fragments de l’histoire de ma vie du prince de Ligne Kevin Hilliard, Leichtigkeit: un idéal de la poésie allemande du dix-huitième siècle Kate Grandjouan, ‘Car le Français, comme la Mer, est perpétuellement en mouvement’: satires anglaises sur l’inconstance des Français Azzurra Mauro, ‘Les matières graves il faut les alléger’: paradoxes du recours à la légèreté chez l’abbé Galiani Maria Susana Seguin, De la légère profondeur des sciences: Fontenelle à l’Académie des sciences Jean-Olivier Richard, La légèreté du père Castel James Fowler, Le poids des mots: gravité, légèreté, attraction dans les Lettres philosophiques Joël Castonguay-Bélanger, Plus légers que les vents: portraits littéraires des premiers aéronautes Jean-Alexandre Perras, Les cabrioles des boulevards Anthony Wall, De la légèreté d’un personnage qui franchit un pont chez Hubert Robert Élise Urbain, ‘Dans un instant, la toilette aura tout gâté’: négligences et légèreté dans la peinture et la mode en France au dix-huitième siècle Cyril Barde, ‘Le siècle de la poudre et des mouches’: Octave Uzanne au défi du siècle léger Érika Wicky, Les parfums de l’Ancien Régime: persistence et représentations au dix-neuvième siècle Résumés Liste des ouvrages cités Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhile many periods of history are popularly known by their 'great men', the Enlightenment stands out for the prominence of its 'great groups’. This volume assembles leading scholars using data-driven scholarship to study the networks that made the Enlightenment possible, and contributed to creating a new sense of European identity. From Voltaire’s correspondence with Catherine the Great, to Adam Smith’s travels on the European continent, mediated and unmediated communication networks were the lifeline of the Enlightenment. What is particularly notable about the Enlightenment is how these different networks were central to their participants’ identity. One could not take part in the Enlightenment on one’s own. Although some older historical studies highlight the importance of social networks in the Enlightenment, data-driven approaches allow for a more comprehensive and granular understanding of the many different types of networks that formed the intellectual and cultural infrastructure of the Enlightenment throughout Europe. The recent influx of metadata from the correspondences of major Enlightenment figures now allows scholars to study these networks at both the micro and macro levels, and to explore the worlds of the philosophes and the “nodes” in their networks in rich detail. It is at this intersection of Enlightenment historiography, data capture, and social network analysis that the essays collected in this volume all fall, taking advantage of new data sources, configurations, and modes of analysis to deepen our understanding of how Enlightenment sociability worked, who it included, and what it meant for participants. Table of ContentsList of figures and tablesDan Edelstein and Chloe Summers Edmonson, Introduction: historical network analysis and social groups in the EnlightenmentI. Correspondence networksNicholas Cronk, Voltaire’s correspondence network: questions of exploration and interpretationKelsey Rubin-Detlev and Andrew Kahn, Catherine the Great and the art of epistolary networkingCheryl Smeall, ‘He belonged to Europe’: Francesco Algarotti (1712-1764) and his European networksPierre-Yves Beaurepaire, The networks and the reputation of an ambitious Republican of Letters: Jacques de Pérard (Paris, 1713-Stettin, 1766)II. Social networksChloe Summers Edmonson, Julie de Lespinasse and the ‘philosophical’ salonCharlotta Wolff, ‘Un admirateur des philosophes modernes’: the networks of Swedish ambassador Gustav Philip Creutz in Paris, 1766-1783Maria Teodora Comsa, Casanova’s French networks: transitioning from a backstage coterie to the beau mondeIII. Knowledge networksMelanie Conroy, The eighteenth-century French academic networkMark Algee-Hewitt, The principles of meaning: networks of knowledge in Johnson’s DictionarySummariesBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisFancy in the eighteenth century was part of a rich semantic network, connecting wit, whimsicality, erotic desire, spontaneity, deviation from norms and triviality. It was also a contentious term, signifying excess, oddness and irrationality, liable to offend taste, reason and morals. This collection of essays foregrounds fancy – and its close synonym, caprice – as a distinct strand of the imagination in the period. As a prevalent, coherent and enduring concept in aesthetics and visual culture, it deserves a more prominent place in scholarly understanding than it has hitherto occupied. Fancy is here understood as a type of creative output that deviated from rules and relished artistic freedom. It was also a mode of audience response, entailing a high degree of imaginative engagement with playful, quirky artworks, generating pleasure, desire or anxiety. Emphasizing commonalities between visual productions in different media from diverse locations, the authors interrogate and celebrate the expressive freedom of fancy in European visual culture. Topics include: the seductive fictions of the fancy picture, Fragonard and galanterie, fancy in drawing manuals, pattern books and popular prints, fans and fancy goods, chinoiserie, excess and virtuality in garden design, Canaletto's British 'capricci', urban design in Madrid, and Goya's 'Caprichos'.Trade Review‘The fifteen essays published here are focused more specifically on the eighteenth century, ad consider a broad range of potential gateways to fantasie/fancy offered by artists, artisans, writers and tradesmen. The result is a refreshingly expansive overview of a concept that hitherto was largely confined to discussions of painting and to the exclusive consideration of such artists as Joshua Reynolds or Fragonard.’ Yuriko Jackall, The Burlington Magazine'A valuable addition to European cultural studies, this well-documented collection provides a fascinating perspective on an important theme that pervades eighteenth-century creative expression.'Felicia B. Sturzer, New Perspectives on the Eighteenth CenturyTable of ContentsList of figuresAcknowledgementsMelissa Percival - IntroductionEmmanuel Faure-Carricaburu - The fantasy figures of Jean-Baptiste Santerre and the limits of generic frameworks of interpretationChristophe Guillouet - The Parisian world of printmaking at the heart of the invention of a genre? Poilly, Courtin and Bonnart's fantaisies (1713-1728)John Chu - Windows of opportunity: the French fantasy figure and the spirit of enterprise in early-eighteenth-century EuropeMartin Postle - Modelling for the fancy picture in eighteenth-century EnglandBénédicte Miyamoto - The influence of drawing manuals on the British practice and reception of fancy picturesGuillaume Faroult - A galant fantasy: Fragonard's fantasy figures and The Music lesson in relation to Van Dyck, Watteau and Carle VanlooPierre-Henri Biger - Fans, fantasy and fancyMelissa Percival - Fancy as a mode of consumptionVanessa Alayrac-Fielding - 'A butterfly supporting an elephant': chinoiserie, fantaisie and 'the luxuriance of fancy'Laurent Châtel - The garden as capriccio: the hortulan pleasures of imagination and virtualityBéatrice Laurent - Grand Tour capricciXavier Cervantes - Venetian reminiscences and cultural hybridity in Canaletto's English-period capricci and veduteAdrián Fernández Almoguera - From the private cabinet to the suburban villa: caprices and fantasies in eighteenth-century MadridAndrew Schulz - Satire and fantasy in Goya's CaprichosAlice Labourg - 'Fancy paints with hues unreal': pictorial fantasy and literary creation in Ann Radcliffe's Gothic novelsSummariesList of contributorsBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe emergence of a theatrical science of man in France, 1660-1740 highlights a radical departure from discussions of dramatic literature and its undergirding rules to a new, relational discourse on the emotional power of theater. Through a diverse cast of religious theaterphobes, government officials, playwrights, art theorists and proto-philosophes, Connors shows the concerted effort in early Enlightenment France to use texts about theater to establish broader theories on emotion, on the enduring psychological and social ramifications of affective moments, and more generally, on human interaction, motivation, and social behavior. This fundamentally anthropological assessment of theater emerged in the works of anti-theatrical religious writers, who argued that emotional response was theater’s raison d’être and that it was an efficient venue to learn more about the depravity of human nature. A new generation of pro-theatrical writers shared the anti-theatricalists’ intense focus on the emotions of theater, but unlike religious theaterphobes, they did not view emotion as a conduit of sin or as a dangerous, uncontrollable process; but rather, as cognitive-affective moments of feeling and learning. Connors’ study explores this reassessment of the theatrical experience which empowered writers to use plays, critiques, and other cultural materials about the stage to establish a theatrical science of man—an early Enlightenment project with aims to study and ‘improve’ the emotional, social, and political ‘health’ of eighteenth-century France.Trade Review‘Informed by recent work in emotions history and affect theory, the book’s six engaging and original chapters show how this theatrical science repositioned early eighteenth-century spectators, not as hapless victims, but as active learners for whom the theatrical experience was a source of knowledge about the emotions… The Emergence of a Theatrical Science of Man in France makes a strong case for why cultural understandings of theatre as a social practice must also consider intellectual history as well as the dramatic texts that were performed. There are many fine-grained analyses of plays that convincingly illustrate the emotional dynamics described in the book… this book makes for fascinating, provocative reading.’ Annelle Curulla, Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Theatre ResearchTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: theater, emotions, science of manDiderot’s relational dramaFrom religious theaterphobia to theatrical innovationAffect, intentionality, and the history of emotions Chapter 1: Theaterphobia and the transformational power of performanceAnti-theatrical criticism: goals and strategiesCorneille, Nicole, and the reality of emotionsLearning dangerously from the passions: Pierre Nicole’s Traité de la comédieDebating theatrical emotions in the wake of Nicole’s Traité Chapter 2: “Que sur la superficie de notre cœur”: Jean-Baptiste Dubos’s theatrical emotionsEmotional debates: past and presentA different path to aesthetic appreciationThe political case for pleasureDubos’s cognitive-affective sequences Chapter 3: Beyond affect: from Dubos’s “passions superficielles” to Houdar de La Motte’s “sentiments raisonnables”La Motte, the Querelle, and the RegencyLa Motte’s “sentiments raisonnables”The dramaturgical power of intérêt Chapter 4: From the page to the stage: La Motte’s theatrical inquiry into the emotionsContext and emotion in Les Macchabées (1721)Intentionality and suspense in Romulus (1722)Inès de Castro (1723) and the emotional politics of intérêt Chapter 5: Strategic passions: Marivaux’s Moderne subjectivitiesMarivaux’s trajectory from Moderne to bel esprit to scientist of manLearning from the “organs”: Marivaux’s intuitive ethicsSentimental strategies: Marivaux’s theories of emotion in Le Triomphe de l’amour (1732) Chapter 6: Learning through multiplicité: emotion and distance in the comédie larmoyanteThe decline and rebirth of Nivelle de La Chaussée’s emotional poeticsMeaning-making through the romanesqueThe pièce-cadre: emotion, multiplicité, and spectatorship in La Fausse Antipathie (1733) Conclusion: avant-gardes, emotion, and Enlightenment Works citedIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrench painting of Louis XV’s reign (1715–74), generally categorized by the term rococo, has typically been understood as an artistic style aimed at furnishing courtly society with delightful images of its own frivolous pursuits. Instead, this book shows the significance and seriousness underpinning the notion of pleasure embedded in eighteenth-century history painting. During this time, pleasure became a moral ideal grounded not only in domestic life but also defining a range of social, political, and cultural transactions oriented toward transforming and improving society at large. History, painting, and the seriousness of pleasure in the age of Louis XV reconsiders the role of history painting in creating a new visual language that presented peace and happiness as an individual’s natural rights in the aftermath of Louis XIV’s bellicose reign (1643-1715). In this new study, Susanna Caviglia reinvestigates the artistic practices of an entire generation of painters born around 1700 (e.g. Francois Boucher, Charles-Joseph Natoire, and Carle Vanloo) in order to highlight the cultural forces at work within their now iconic images.Table of ContentsList of illustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionHistorical perspective: the peaceable kingdom of Louis XVThe paintersToward a new artistic idiomI. Historia in stasisChapter 1: The action de reposProlegomena to the theory and practiceMeditation, contemplationThe dynamic body suspended Narrative disrupted Moments in the present and the future Chapter 2: Corporeality and repose Fontenelle’s ideal Corporeal conversations Figures of seductionThe expression of reposeFrom narrative representation to figural presentationII. The figure in artistic practiceChapter 3: Figure/study/artwork Copying the figure The whole and the part The emergence of corporeal repose The new body language Chapter 4: The story beyond the figureFrom study to subjectAutonomous figures in paintingRepertoires of modelsLife study and historical subjectIII. The fabrication of a new grand genreChapter 5: Before the painting The figure: from the idea to the paintingThe emergence of new creative practicesThe single body and the multiplication of bodiesThe figure: from reuse to quotationChapter 6: Epilogue: on novelty in paintingBrand new beautiesThe painting of the presentBibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn a speech delivered in 1794, roughly one year after the execution of Louis XVI, Robespierre boldly declared Terror to be an ‘emanation of virtue’. In adapting the concept of virtue to Republican ends, Robespierre was drawing on traditions associated with ancient Greece and Rome. But Republican tradition formed only one of many strands in debates concerning virtue in France and elsewhere in Europe, from 1680 to the Revolution. This collection focuses on moral-philosophical and classical-republican uses of ‘virtue’ in this period – one that is often associated with a ‘crisis of the European mind’. It also considers in what ways debates concerning virtue involved gendered perspectives. The texts discussed are drawn from a range of genres, from plays and novels to treatises, memoirs, and libertine literature. They include texts by authors such as Diderot, Laclos, and Madame de Staël, plus other, lesser-known texts that broaden the volume’s perspective. Collectively, the contributors to the volume highlight the central importance of virtue for an understanding of an era in which, as Daniel Brewer argues in the closing chapter, ‘the political could not be thought outside its moral dimension, and morality could not be separated from inevitable political consequences’.Trade Review‘This fascinating book is likely to have a long-standing presence in the reading lists of students of French intellectual history…The philosophes certainly raised many questions about the possibility of secular virtue, and the contributions to this book reveal just how important such questions were.’ Madeleine Armstrong, Modern Language Review'This volume avoids the trap of many others of its kind, as the articles are selected and assembled in a coherent manner in a chronological order in such a way as to give a truly comprehensive view of the of the subject matter.' Rotraud von Kulessa, 18th Century Fiction Translated from English, 'This volume escapes the trap of many others of its kind, because the articles are chosen and put together in a coherent way in a chronological order in such a way as to be able to give a real overview of the subject matter.'Table of ContentsList of figuresAcknowledgementsList of abbreviationsJames Fowler and Marine Ganofsky, Introduction: virtue and the secular turn, 1680-1794Michael Moriarty, Virtue before the EnlightenmentNicholas Treuherz, Vertu et Lumières: Bayle’s ‘virtuous atheist’ and its afterlivesJames Fowler, Secular virtue: echoes of Shaftesbury in DiderotAlicia C. Montoya, From the religious virtues to Enlightenment virtueIoana Galleron, Bernard-Joseph Saurin, the comédie de moeurs and the civic function of playsKaren Nehlsen Manna, Acting honnête: effeminacy, masculinity and the ethos of social virtue in Enlightenment comedyJean-Alexandre Perras, The softness of the petit-maître and the decay of virtusMathilde Chollet, ‘La vera nobiltà non consiste in altro che nella virtù’: a woman’s view on virtue, or Henriette de Marans’s nobilityMarine Ganofsky, Virtue and invisibility: libertine variations on the myth of GygesLydia Vázquez, Female virtue and bliss in the eighteenth centuryPierre Saint-Amand, The politics of virtue: Réflexions sur le procès de la reine by Mme de StaëlPatrice Higonnet, Robespierre’s virtue in Marx and TocquevilleDaniel Brewer, Virtue and the ethics of the virtualSummariesList of works citedIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhile the resonance of Giambattista Vico’s hermeneutics for postcolonialism has long been recognised, a rupture has been perceived between his intercultural sensibility and the actual content of his philological investigations, which have often been criticised as being Eurocentric and philologically spurious. China is a case in point. In his magnum opus New Science, Vico portrays China as backward and philosophically primitive compared to Europe.In this first study dedicated to China in Vico’s thought, Daniel Canaris shows that scholars have been beguiled by Vico’s value judgements of China without considering the function of these value judgements in his theory of divine providence. This monograph illustrates that Vico's image of China is best appreciated within the contemporary theological controversies surrounding the Jesuit accommodation of Confucianism.Through close examination of Vico’s sources and intellectual context, Canaris argues that by refusing to consider Confucius as a “filosofo”, Vico dismantles the rationalist premises of the theological accommodation proposed by the Jesuits and proposes a new functionalist valorisation of non-Christian religion that anticipates post-colonial critiques of the Enlightenment.Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsPrefaceIntroduction: resurrecting the Chinese fossil‘A monstrous Chinese fossil’China and Confucianism in Vico’s NaplesVico and Jesuit accommodationismRevisiting the rozza e goffa philosophy of Vico’s ConfuciusPlan of this workChapter 1: Providence and Rome in the Diritto universaleRetheologising VicoBackground to grace and providence in Vico’s Diritto universaleProvidence between fate and chanceChapter 2: The problem of China in early modern historiographyPlacing China in a Judaeo-Christian metanarrativeDevelopment of the Jesuit view of ChinaChapter 3: The Scythian exception in the Diritto universaleThe Romans of the EastThe Scythians in early modern historiography and ethnographyVico’s Scythians and Noachide monotheismChapter 4: Towards a new theological valorisation of ChinaNormalising the ScythiansA hermeneutic of ignoranceDemystifying Chinese ideogramsRe-evaluating Jesuit accommodationismChapter 5: Poetic truth and Christian truthScienza versus coscienzaOntological truths and teologia civile ragionataConclusion: La discoverta del vero ConfucioBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisDigitizing Enlightenment explores how a set of inter-related digital projects are transforming our vision of the Enlightenment. The featured projects are some of the best known, well-funded and longest established research initiatives in the emerging area of ‘digital humanities’, a field that has, particularly since 2010, been attracting a rising tide of interest from professional academics, the media, funding councils, and the general public worldwide. Advocates and practitioners of the digital humanities argue that computational methods can fundamentally transform our ability to answer some of the ‘big questions’ that drive humanities research, allowing us to see patterns and relationships that were hitherto hard to discern, and to pinpoint, visualise, and analyse relevant data in efficient and powerful new ways. In the book’s opening section, leading scholars outline their own projects’ institutional and intellectual histories, the techniques and methodologies they specifically developed, the sometimes-painful lessons learned in the process, future trajectories for their research, and how their findings are revising previous understandings. A second section features chapters from early career scholars working at the intersection of digital methods and Enlightenment studies, an intellectual space largely forged by the projects featured in part one. Highlighting current and future research methods and directions for digital eighteenth-century studies, the book offers a monument to the current state of digital work, an overview of current findings, and a vision statement for future research. Featuring contributions from Keith Michael Baker, Elizabeth Andrews Bond, Robert M. Bond, Simon Burrows, Catherine Nicole Coleman, Melanie Conroy, Charles Cooney, Nicholas Cronk, Dan Edelstein, Chloe Summers Edmondson, the late Richard Frautschi, Clovis Gladstone, Howard Hotson, Angus Martin, Katherine McDonough, Alicia C. Montoya, Robert Morrissey, Laure Philip, Jeffrey S. Ravel, Glenn Roe, and Sean Takats.Trade Review'Anyone embarking on a DH project, be it large- or small-scale, would do well to read this volume carefully before they begin.'Hélène E. Bilis, Wellesley CollegeReviews'It is clear that anyone embarking on a DH [digital humanities] project, be it large- or small-scale, would do well to read this volume carefully before they begin.'Hélène E. Bilis, H-France ReviewTable of ContentsList of figures and tablesKeith Michael BakerPrefaceSimon Burrows and Glenn RoeIntroduction: Digitizing Enlightenment I. Digital projects, past and present Robert Morrissey and Glenn RoeThe ARTFL Encyclopédie and the aesthetics of abundance Nicholas CronkElectronic Enlightenment: recreating the Republic of Letters Dan EdelsteinMapping the Republic of Letters: history of a digital humanities projectHoward HotsonCultures of Knowledge in transition: Early Modern Letters Online as an experiment in collaboration, 2009-2018 Jeffrey S. RavelThe Comédie-Française Registers Project: questions of audience Angus Martin and the late Richard FrautschiTowards a new bibliography of eighteenth-century French fiction Simon BurrowsThe FBTEE revolution: mapping the Ancien Régime book trade and the future of historical bibliometric research Alicia C. MontoyaShifting perspectives and moving targets: from conceptual vistas to bits of data in the first yearof the MEDIATE project II. Digital methods and innovationsCatherine Nicole ColemanSeeking the eye of history: the design of digital tools for Enlightenment studies Elizabeth Andrews Bond and Robert M. BondTopic modelling the French pre-Revolutionary press Katherine McDonoughPutting the eighteenth century on the map: French geospatial data for digital humanities researchLaure PhilipThe illegal book trade revisited: an insight into database protocols and pitfalls Melanie Conroy and Chloe Summers EdmondsonThe empire of letters: Enlightenment-era French salons Clovis Gladstone and Charles CooneyOpening new paths for scholarship: algorithms to track text reuse in Eighteenth Century Collections Online Sean TakatsConclusion: beyond digitizing Enlightenment Bibliography Index of persons Index of titles General index

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn June 2019, in an interview given to the Financial Times, Russian President Vladimir Putin baldly declared that the liberal idea had outlived its purpose as the public turned against immigration, open borders and multiculturalism. If liberalism has indeed come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population then evidence should show that it is in retreat. Ipso facto, so should Enlightenment values that underpin liberal democracy. A key aim of the book is to garner evidence. Is the liberal idea characterised by Putin accurate or rather a caricature divorced from reality? Modern Europe and the Enlightenment explores whether the policy stance on the issues outlined above, and a host of similar topics being tackled by European governments, are consonant with Enlightenment values. The Enlightenment covered an array of issues on every aspect of life wherein reason was rigorously applied to solve problems, gain understanding and discover facts. It was a successor to the scientific revolution. The assumption is that the Enlightenment left a profound legacy on Western Europe, which lingers till the present day. The following broad areas of Enlightenment values are covered: reason, human rights, religion and secularism, freedom of expression, political and economic open-mindedness, race, and women's issues. The book examines the extent to which Enlightenment values are adhered to in various parts of modern Europe delineated into Western Europe, the progenitor of the Enlightenment; former communist countries that have joined the European Union; and former communist countries that are not in the EU. Discussion also focuses on the modern Counter-Enlightenment movement.

Read more less

Book SynopsisExamining the birth and development of early modern atheism from Spinoza’s Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670) to d’Holbach’s Système de la nature (1770), this study considers Spinoza, Hobbes, Cudworth, Bayle, Meslier, Boulainviller, Du Marsais, Fréret, Toland, Collins, Hume, Diderot, Voltaire, and d’Holbach and positions them in a general interpretive scheme, based on the idea that early modern atheism is itself an unwanted fruit of early modern metaphysics and theology. Breaking with a long-standing tradition, Descartes claimed that it was possible to have a "clear and distinct" idea of God, indeed that the idea of God was the "clearest and most distinct" of all ideas accessible to the human mind. Humans could thus obtain a scientific knowledge of God’s nature and attributes. But as soon as God became an object of science, He also became the object of a thoroughgoing scientific analysis and criticism. The effortlessness with which early modern atheists managed to turn round their adversaries’ arguments to their own favour is a sign that the new doctrines of God which emerged in the seventeenth-century, each based in its own way on principles and dogmas related to the new science of nature, were plunging headfirst towards the precipice under their own steam.

Read more less

Book SynopsisGenealogy and Social Status in the Enlightenment is at the crossroads of the history of science and the social history of cultural practices, and suggests the need for a new approach on the significance of genealogies in the Age of Enlightenment. While their importance has been fully recognised and extensively studied in early modern Britain and in the Victorian period, the long eighteenth century has been too often presented as a black hole regarding genealogy. Enlightened values and urban sociability have been presented as inimical to the praise of ancestry and birth. In contrast, however, various studies on the continental or in the American colonies, have shed light on the many uses of genealogies, even beyond the landed elite. Whether it be in the publishing industry, in the urban corporations, in the scientific discourses, genealogy was used, not only as a resilient social practice, but also as a form of reasoning, a language and a tool to include newcomers, organise scientific and historical knowledge or to express various emotions. This volume aims to reconsider the flexibility of genealogical practices and their perpetual reconfiguration to meet renewed expectations in the period. Far from slowly vanishing under the blows of rationalism that would have delegitimized an ancient world based on various forms of hereditary determinism, the different contributions to this collective work demonstrate that genealogy is a pervasive tool to make sense of a fast-changing society.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSince the 5th century BCE Persia has played a significant part in representing the “Other” against which European identity has been constructed. What makes the case of Persia unique in this process of identity formation is the ambivalent attitude that Europe has shown in its imaginary about Persia. Persia is arguably the nation of “the Orient” most referred to in Early Modern European writings, frequently mentioned in various discourses of the Enlightenment including theology, literature, and political theory. What was the appeal of Persia to such a diverse intellectual population in Enlightenment Europe? How did intellectuals engage with the ‘facts’ about Persia? In what ways did utilizing Persia contribute to the development of modern European identities? In this volume, an international group of scholars with diverse academic backgrounds has tackled these and other questions related to the Enlightenment’s engagement with Persia. In doing so, Persia and the Enlightenment questions reductionist assessments of Modern Europe’s encounter with the Middle East, where a complex engagement is simplified to a confrontation between liberalism and Islam, or an exaggerated Orientalism. By carefully studying Persia in the Enlightenment narratives, this volume throws new light on the complexity of intercultural encounters and their impact on the shaping of collective identities.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSurmontant une opposition souvent outrée entre les deux auteurs, ce volume réévalue l’héritage de la pensée de Locke chez Rousseau, dans tous les domaines de sa philosophie (identité personnelle, épistémologie, médecine, morale, pédagogie, économie, politique). Au-delà de l’histoire intellectuelle, l’ouvrage met en lumière le dialogue critique fécond que Rousseau entretient avec Locke, quitte à identifier les distorsions que le Citoyen de Genève fait subir à son prédécesseur. Tout en établissant la dette de l’auteur d’Émile à l’égard du ‘sage Locke’, le volume discerne la pertinence des objections que Rousseau lui adresse en opérant un retour à la lettre de la philosophie de Locke. En quel sens Rousseau a-t-il établi sa philosophie sur des ‘principes communs’ à ceux de Locke ? Quelle subversion fait-il subir à l’Essai concernant l’entendement humain ou aux Pensées sur l’éducation ? Quels sont les points aveugles de la philosophie de Locke que la critique rousseauiste permet de mettre en lumière et, à l’inverse, les limites de la critique rousseauiste de Locke ? Tels sont les axes de cet ouvrage qui réunit des spécialistes, en philosophie et en littérature, de Rousseau et de Locke. --Transcending an often outraged opposition between the two authors, this volume reassesses the legacy of Locke's thought in that of Rousseau, in all the areas of his philosophy (personal identity, epistemology, medicine, morality, pedagogy, economics, politics). Beyond an intellectual history, this collected volume highlights the fruitful critical dialogue that Rousseau maintains with Locke, while identifying the ways in which the Citizen of Geneva distorted his predecessor’s thought. While establishing the author of Emile’s debt to the ‘sage Locke’, the volume also discerns the relevance of Rousseau’s objections to Lockian philosophy. In what sense did Rousseau establish his own philosophy on ‘common principles’ to those of Locke? How does he subvert the Essay Concerning Human Understanding or the Thoughts Concerning Education? What are the blind spots in Locke’s philosophy that Rousseau highlights and, conversely, the limits of Rousseau’s criticism of Locke? These are the main aspects of this volume, which brings together scholars in philosophy and literature, on Rousseau and Locke.Table of ContentsListe des ouvrages de référence et des abréviationsRemerciementsIntroduction générale (Johanna Lenne-Cornez et Céline Spector)Première Partie: Le soi, théorie et pratique1. Mémoire autobiographique et identité personnelle (Stéphane Chauvier)2. ‘The chief if not only spur to humane industry and action’ Rousseau et l’uneasiness de Locke (Christophe Litwin)Deuxième Partie: L’empirisme en question3. De la famille naturelle à la famille sociale: l’usage d’arguments naturalistes chez Rousseau et Locke (Anne Morvan)4. Le défiance à l’égard de la médecine: enjeux philosophiques de Locke à Rousseau (Claire Crignon)5. Locke et la Métaphysique du vicaire savoyard (Philippe Hamou)6. A l’épreuve des notions morales: l’approfondissement de l’empirisme (Louis Guerpillon)Troisième Partie: Réflexions critiques sur l’éducation7. De Locke à Rousseau: une révolution pédagogique? (Christophe Martin)8. Signification et utilité des sanctions chez Locke et Rousseau (Gabrielle Radica)Quatrième Partie: Les institutions politiques9. L’inaliénabilité de la liberté (Céline Spector)10. Pouvoir instituant et résistance (Jean Terrel)11. Du consentement à la représentation politique, Rousseau critique de Locke? (Ludmilla Lorrain)12. Emile, citoyen lockien (Johanna Lenne-Cornuez)Bibliographie complète

Read more less

Book SynopsisCélèbre pour ses travaux d’économie politique ainsi que pour son activité diplomatique, Ferdinando Galiani (1728-1787) incarne un type singulier de ‘philosophe’, s’attribuant et reniant cette appellation en fonction des contextes. Bien que refusant de construire un système ordonné d’idées, Galiani produit un savoir philosophique qui accompagne et enrichit ses projets politiques. Située au carrefour de l’histoire, de la littérature et de la philosophie, cette monographie étudie ainsi le parcours de Galiani en mesurant la finalité sociale et politique de sa production philosophico-littéraire, et en saisissant son identité de ‘philosophe’ entre Naples et Paris. Quelles influences ces deux milieux socioculturels ont-ils eu sur sa pensée et sur sa carrière? Cette interrogation constitue le cœur d’une analyse souhaitant reconsidérer conjointement les contextes napolitain et parisien, où les termes de ‘philosophe՚ et de ‘filosofo՚ se chargent de significations, de pratiques et d’emplois différenciés. A l’aune des discours, des pratiques et des représentations que cet auteur construit tout au long de sa vie, ce livre inscrit Galiani dans la dimension concrète du travail philosophique, en étudiant sa manière de vivre en philosophe, là où les batailles philosophiques, les succès éditoriaux et la gloire cohabitent sans antagonisme avec des inquiétudes d’ordre matériel, des craintes concernant sa réputation ou encore des échecs. --- Famous for his works on political economy as well as for his diplomatic activity, Ferdinando Galiani (1728-1787) embodies a singular type of 'philosopher', attributing and denying himself this designation according to the context. Although he refused to construct an ordered system of ideas, Galiani produced a philosophical knowledge that accompanied and enriched his political projects. Situated at the crossroads of history, literature and philosophy, this monograph studies Galiani's career by measuring the social and political purpose of his philosophical-literary production, and by establishing his identity as a 'philosopher' between Naples and Paris. What influences did these two socio-cultural milieus have on his thought and his career? This question constitutes the core of an analysis that aims to simultaneously reconsider the Neapolitan and Parisian contexts, where the terms ‘philosophe՚ and ‘filosofo՚ take on different meanings, practices and uses. In the light of the discourses, practices and representations that this author constructed throughout his life, this book places Galiani in the real dimension of philosophical work, studying his way of life as a philosopher, where philosophical battles, editorial successes and fame coexist without conflict with material worries, fears about his reputation or even failures.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Enlightenment Europe, a new form of pantomime ballet emerged, through the dual channels of theorization in print and experimentation onstage. Emphasizing eighteenth-century ballet’s construction through print culture, Theories of Ballet in the Age of the Encyclopédie follows two parallel paths—standalone treatises on ballet and dance and encyclopedias—to examine the shifting definition of ballet over the second half of the eighteenth century. Bringing together the Encyclopédie and its Supplément, the Encyclopédie méthodique, and the Encyclopédie d’Yverdon with the works of Jean-Georges Noverre, Louis de Cahusac, and Charles Compan, it traces how the recycling and recombining of discourses about dance, theatre, and movement arts directly affected the process of defining ballet. At the same time, it emphasizes the role of textual borrowing and compilation in disseminating knowledge during the Enlightenment, examining the differences between placing borrowed texts into encyclopedias of various types as well as into journal format, arguing that context has the potential to play a role equally important to content in shaping a reader’s understanding, and that the Encyclopédie méthodique presented ballet in a way that diverged radically from both the Encyclopédie and Noverre’s Lettres sur la danse.Trade Review\‘Olivia Sabee provides an important contribution to the study of the circulation of ideas and definitions concerning the art of ballet in Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century. Her publication will be welcomed by specialists of the history of the performing arts, as well as scholars or students interested in the bigger picture of how the encyclopaedic spirit shaped the perception of the arts and served to disseminate new ideas during the Enlightenment period.\’ Béatrice Pfister, Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies‘[A] valuable resource for scholars focused on dance, documentation, and communication… Sabee’s book reminds us that encyclopedias are works of art, and as such, they deserve our attention as scholars seek to discover how knowledge travels, or rather dances. Theories of Ballet in the Age of Encyclopédie is compelling because it directs us to consider ballet’s theoretical past as unsettled, and the ongoing circulation of texts as an important part of ballet’s history.’ Michelle LaVigne, Dance Chronicle

Read more less

Book SynopsisLe siècle des Lumières constitue un moment important dans l’émergence de la littérature pour la jeunesse en France. La production destinée aux jeunes lecteurs rassemble alors non seulement des ouvrages initialement rédigés pour ce public, mais aussi des réécritures qui lui sont adressées. Éditions adaptées, abrégés, imitations plus libres : ces réécritures s’attachent à des œuvres fort diverses, des classiques de l’Antiquité aux fictions modernes, en passant par les discours historique et scientifique. Elles forment un genre littéraire qui se consolide au XVIIIe et au début du XIXesiècle, en intégrant plusieurs questions qui sont au cœur de la pensée des Lumières, notamment en matière d’éducation. Le présent ouvrage se propose d’explorer cette production peu étudiée jusqu’à ce jour. Les contributions abordent les multiples facettes du genre, en s’intéressant aux réécritures des œuvres de différents auteurs : Cicéron, Plutarque, La Bruyère, Rousseau, Perrault, Villeneuve, Defoe, Cervantès, Fielding, Newton, Raynal, Buffon. En se penchant sur les enjeux liés à l’apparition de la littérature pour le jeune public, elles jettent un regard original sur la culture écrite des Lumières. ---The Age of Enlightenment was an important moment in the emergence of children’s literature in France. Literary output for young readers included not only original works, but also rewrites of existing texts to suit this particularly type of audience. Adapted editions, abridgements, texts based loosely on those from which they draw original inspiration: these rewritings are present across a diverse range of works, from the classics of antiquity to modern fiction, through historical and scientific discourse. They form a literary genre that was consolidated in the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-centuries and address various questions at the heart of Enlightenment thought, particularly in terms of education. The present collection takes an orignal look at the writing culture of the Enlightenment by exploring this neglected set of texts for younger audiences. Contributions address the many facets of the genre, focusing on the rewritings of works by different authors, including Cicéron, Plutarque, La Bruyère, Rousseau, Perrault, Villeneuve, Defoe, Cervantès, Fielding, Newton, Raynal, Buffon.Table of ContentsMICHEL FOURNIER et UGO DIONNE. Introduction. Les adaptations et les réécritures ‘à l’usage de la jeunesse’ au siècle des Lumières : du dispositif ‘scolaire’ au genre littéraire I. Adapter la moraleMARC ANDRÉ BERNIER, Humanisme jésuite et pédagogie des Lumières. Les Pensées de Cicéron à l’usage de la jeunesse de l’abbé d’OlivetGENEVIÈVE BOUCHER, Les réécritures de Plutarque à l’intention de la jeunesse sous le Consulat et l’EmpireMICHEL FOURNIER, Les adaptations et imitations de La Bruyère pour le jeune publicMARIE-EMMANUELLE PLAGNOL-DIÉVAL, L’Emile de Rousseau par Mme de Genlis: édition ou réécriture? Notes bruyantes et émondage silencieuxII. Réécrire le romanJEAN-PAUL SERMAIN, Le conte de fées et le projet pédagogique. Leprince de Beaumont face à Perrault et à VilleneuveISABELLE NIÈRES-CHEVREL, De l’adaptation à la réécriture; faire naître la robinsonnade (1766-1818)YEN-MAI TRAN-GERVAT, Don Quichotte pour la jeunesse en France au dix-huitième siècle et au début du dix-neuvième siècleFRÉDÉRIC OGÉE, ‘Quiconque l’a connu n’en a jamais dit que du bien’: remarques sur Le Tom Jones des enfans (1812)III. Vulgariser la scienceJOËL CASTONGUAY-BÉLANGER, Newton raconté aux enfantsSÉBASTIEN CÔTÉ, Usages de la Nouvelle-France dans Le Raynal de la jeunesseSWANN PARADIS, Changer en hochet le sceptre du génie: Le Buffon de la jeunesse et ses avatarsRésumésBibliographie

Read more less

Book SynopsisReligion, Science and Moral Philosophy in the Huguenot Enlightenment makes two significant contributions to existing scholarship on the Enlightenment. Firstly, as an author, journalist, translator, and inexhaustible letter writer, the Huguenot pastor and secretary of the Berlin Academy of Science, Samuel Formey, was involved in most of the philosophical debates in the European Republic of Letters during the second half of the eighteenth century. This is the first monograph dedicated solely to Formey’s multifaceted work. Secondly, the book recasts the concept of Religious Enlightenment by considering Formey as a pastor-philosopher whose concept of philosophy included revealed religion instead of perpetuating the image of him as an ‘enemy of Enlightenment’ who opposed the philosophy of his time by referring to religion. More precisely, the book explores the notion of the compatibility between reason and faith in Formey’s thought on the existence of God, the freedom of will, divine providence and other questions relating to religion and metaphysics. It shows how Formey altered his portrayal of the relation between reason and faith depending on the genre and immediate context of his writings. The broader contextualisation of Formey’s arguments in German rationalist philosophy and Calvinist theology unveils not only the overlaps between Wolffianism and eighteenth-century Calvinism but also gives an impression of the diversity of the thought of Huguenot pastors and philosophers during the Enlightenment.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Reason and faith in the Enlightenment The Huguenots and the Enlightenment Religious Enlightenment Method and structure of the book Formey’s concept of philosophy and its relationship to religion Philosophy as a universal science of reason The epistemological foundations of Christian philosophy The Christian philosopher in the French debate about the ‘true’ philosopher Formey in the Berlin Huguenot Enlightenment, or how to reconcile the pastor and the philosopher Early Huguenot socialisation Acquaintance with Wolffianism Formey’s transition from pastor to professor of philosophy Preaching like a philosopher and philosophising like a preacher Philosophical preaching between Calvinist homiletic reform and Wolffianism Formey’s transformation of philosophical sermons into moral philosophical essays Secularisation of morality The existence of God and the superiority of metaphysics Rationalism against scepticism: Formey’s dictionary entry for ‘God’ Metaphysics against physico-theology: Formey’s revision of the teleological proof of God Formey and Maupertuis on metaphysics Newtonians against Wolffians: Perception of the debate by two groups of contemporaries Pre-established harmony and fatalism Popularising Wolff’s philosophy: Formey’s Belle wolfienne Formey’s multi-vocal criticism of pre-established harmony and the nexus rerum The origins of Formey’s criticism The debate on free will An empirical science of the soul Free will between absolute necessity and liberty of indifference The free will debate at the Berlin Academy Providence, moral duties and optimism The Berlin Academy’s 1751 prize essay competition on the theme of providence The ‘real’ theory of fortune: Formey and the winning essay The debate between Formey and Boullier about Leibnizian optimism Natural law, morality and science Formey on Rousseau’s Discours sur les sciences et les arts Formey’s scientific moral philosophy Divine and natural law in Formey’s moral philosophy Conclusion – Religious Enlightenment between Calvinism and Wolffianism Bibliography Archival material Primary sources Secondary sources

Read more less

Kants kritischer Philosophie wird bis heute von prominenter Seite der Vorwurf gemacht, sie unterstelle ein im Kern subjektivistisch-monologisches Individuum. Tatsächlich aber liegt ihr nichts ferner als ein solcher Subjektivismus. Kants Vernunft ist eine durch und durch öffentliche Vernunft, sie ist, wie er selbst sagt, existenziell angewiesen auf öffentliches Räsonnement. Kant verwendet den Begriff „Öffentlichkeit“, anders als das Adjektiv „öffentlich“, in seinem schriftlichen Werk zwar kein einziges Mal, die Funktion der Öffentlichkeit aber sieht er als für sein Denken elementar an. Entscheidend dabei: Öffentlichkeit ist nicht nur eine Bedingung allen kritischen Vernunftgebrauchs, sondern gerade auch dessen Folge. Träger der Vernunft sind freie, empirische Individuen. Machen diese Individuen Gebrauch von ihrer öffentlichen Vernunft, konstituieren sie bestimmte Öffentlichkeiten des Vernunftgebrauchs - nämlich neben der politischen, die theoretische, die praktische und die ästhetische Öffentlichkeit. Die vorliegende Arbeit geht dieser Öffentlichkeit der Vernunft unter anderem in den drei Kritiken nach - und zeigt dabei, wie eng insbesondere Kants theoretische Philosophie mit seinen politischen Schriften verbunden ist.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

Using a complete interpretation of Whitehead’s philosophical and mathematical writings, this book argues that Whitehead has never been properly understood. It applies Whitehead’s philosophy to problems in the interpretation of science, empirical knowledge, and nature, and develops a new account of philosophical naturalism.

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

This book offers new arguments for determinism. It draws novel and surprising consequences from determinism for our attitudes toward such things as death, regret, grief, and the meaning of life.The book argues that rationalism is the right attitude to take toward reality. It then shows that rationalism implies determinism and that determinism has surprising and far-reaching consequences. The author contends that the existence of all of humanity almost certainly depends on the precise time and manner of your death and mine; that purely retrospective regret, relief, gratitude, and grief are irrational for all but those who hold extreme values; and that everyone's life has an unending impact on the future and thereby achieves the strongest kind of meaning that it makes sense to desire. Written in a direct and accessible style, Determinism, Death, and Meaning will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working in metaphysics, philosophy of

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less