Enlightenment Contested: Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man 1670-1752

by Jonathan I. Israel

Overview

Jonathan Israel presents the first major reassessment of the Western Enlightenment for a generation. Continuing the story he began in the best-selling Radical Enlightenment , and now focusing his attention on the first half of the eighteenth century, he returns to the original sources to offer a groundbreaking new perspective on the nature and development of the most important currents in modern thought.

Israel traces many of the core principles of Western modernity to their roots in the social, political, and philosophical ferment of this period: the primacy of reason, democracy, racial equality, feminism, religious toleration, sexual emancipation, and freedom of expression. He emphasizes the dual character of the Enlightenment, and the bitter struggle between on the one hand a generally dominant, anti-democratic mainstream, supporting the monarchy, aristocracy, and ecclesiastical authority, and on the other a largely repressed democratic, republican, and "materialist" radical fringe. He also contends that the supposedly separate French, British, German, Dutch, and Italian enlightenments interacted to such a degree that their study in isolation gives a hopelessly distorted picture.

A work of dazzling and highly accessible scholarship, Enlightenment Contested will be the definitive reference point for historians, philosophers, and anyone engaged with this fascinating period of human development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199541522
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/15/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	1024
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 2.20(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Israel is Professor of Modern European History, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.

Table of Contents

I: Introductory1. Early Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Modern Age2. Philosophy and the Making of ModernityII: The Crisis of Religious Authority3. Faith and Reason: Bayle versus the Rationaux4. Demolishing Priesthood, Ancient and Modern5. Socinianism and the Social, Psychological, and Cultural Roots of Enlightenment6. Locke, Bayle, and Spinoza: A Contest of Three Toleration Doctrines7. Germany and the Baltic: Enlightenment, Society, and the Universities8. Newtonianism and Anti-Newtonianism in the Early Enlightenment: Science, Philosophy, and ReligionIII: Political Emancipation9. Anit-Hobbesianism and the Making of 'Modernity'10. The Origins of Modern Democratic Republicanism11. Bayle, Boulainvilliers, Montesquieu: Secular Monarchy versus the Aristocratic Republic12. 'Enlightened Despotism': Autocracy, Faith, and Enlightenment in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe 1689-175513. Popular Sovereignty, Resistance, and the 'Right to Revolution'14. Anglomania, anglicisme, and the 'British Model'15. The Triumph of the 'Moderate Enlightenment' in the United ProvincesIV: Intellectual Emancipation16. The Overthrow of Humanist Criticism17. The Recovery of Greek Thought18. The Rise of 'History of Philosophy'19. From 'History of Philosophy' to Histoire de l'Esprit humain20. Italy, the Two Enlightenments, and Vico's 'New Science'V: The Party of Humanity21. The Problem of Equality22. Sex, Marriage, and the Equality of Women23. Race, Radical Thought, and the Advent of Anti-Colonialism24. Rethinking Islam: Philosophy and the 'Other'25. Spinoza, Confucius, and Classical Chinese Philosophy26. Is Religion Requisite for a Well-Ordered Society?VI: Radical Philosophes27. The French Enlightenment prior to Voltaire's Lettres Philosophiques (1734)28. Men, Animals, Fossils: French Hylozoic materialisme before Diderot29. Realigning of the parti philosophique: Voltair, Voltairemanie, antivoltairianisme 1733-174730. From Voltaire to Diderot31. The 'Unvirtuous Atheist'32. The parti philosophique Embraces the Radical Enlightenment 1747-175233. The 'War of the Encyclopedie: The First Stage 1745-175234. PostscriptBibliographyIndex

Editorial Reviews

"Enlightenment Contested is full of wonderful things."—John Dunn, Literary Review

"Mr. Israel's groundbreaking interpretation looks to establish itself as the one to beat."—The Economist

"An enormously impressive piece of shcholarship. The breadth and depth of the author's reading are breathtaking and Enlightenment Contested is set to become the definitive work for philosophers as well as historians on this extraordinary period."—Keith Richmond, Tribune

"Brilliantly presented and dense with learning."—Simon Blackburn, THES

"Evocative and compelling."—John Dunn, Literary Review

From the Publisher