Description
Book SynopsisThe author of this book speaks out again in regard to the Enlightenment. His inspiration comes not only from new observations occasioned by own studies, but also from the recently read material as well as opinions and appraisals of the era articulated lately at academic conferences. Although they have not led the author to perform a fundamental revision of his views in regard to the nature of Enlightenment and its crucial contributions to the Western culture, they did afford a better understanding of its complexity. They also made him more aware that his interpretation and presentation of that era depends considerably on what its prominent representatives had to say, as well as on the worldview-based assumptions and methods of appraisal adopted by its later observers and interpreters.
Table of ContentsThe multitude of grasps of the Enlightenment – The Enlightenment’s revision of Cartesianism – Naturalism of the Enlightenment – Rationalism of the Enlightenment – Religious Enlightenment – Voltairean radicalism – The French Declarations of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen – The opponents of revolutionary radicalism
