Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750 / Edition 1

by Jonathan I. Israel

Overview

In the wake of the Scientific Revolution, the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw the complete demolition of traditional structures of authority, scientific thought, and belief by the new philosophy and the philosophers, including Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau. The Radical Enlightenment played a part in this revolutionary process, which effectively overthrew all justification for monarchy, aristocracy, and ecclesiastical power, as well as man's dominance over woman, theological dominance of education, and slavery. Despite the present day interest in the revolutions of the eighteenth century, the origins and rise of the Radical Enlightenment have received limited scholarly attention. The greatest obstacle to the movement finding its proper place in modern historical writing is its international scope: the Racial Enlightenment was not French, British, German, Italian, Jewish or Dutch, but all of these at the same time.
In this wide-ranging volume, Jonathan Israel offers a novel interpretation of the Radical Enlightenment down to La Mettie and Diderot, two of its key exponents. Particular emphasis is placed on the pivotal role of Spinoza and the widespread underground international philosophical movement known before 1750 as Spinozism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199254569
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/12/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	866
Product dimensions:	9.18(w) x 6.32(h) x 1.87(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Israel is a professor in the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.

Table of Contents

I. The 'Radical Enlightenment'1. Introduction2. Government and Philosophy3. Society, Institutions, Revolution4. Women, Philosophy, and Sexuality5. Censorship and Culture6. Libraries and Enlightenment7. The Learned JournalsII. The Rise of Philosophical Radicalism8. Spinoza9. Van den Enden: Philosophy, Democracy, and Egalitarianism10. Radicalism and the People: The Brothers Koerbagh11. Philosophy, the Interpreter of Scripture12. Miracles Denied13. Spinoza's System14. Spinoza, Science, and the Scientists15. Philosophy, Politics, and the Liberation of Man16. Publishing a Banned Philosophy17. The Spread of a Forbidden MovementIII. Europe and the 'New' Intellectual Controversies 1680-172018. Bayle and the 'Virtuous Atheist'19. The Bredenburg Disputes20. Fontenelle and the War of the Oracles21. The Death of the Devil22. Leenhof and the 'Universal Philosophical Religion'23. The 'Nature of God' ControversyIV. The Intellectual Counter-Offensive24. New Theological Strategies25. The Collapse of Cartesianism26. Leibniz and the Radical Enlightenment27. Anglomania: The 'Triumph' of Newton and Locke28. The Intellectual Drama in Spain and Portugal29. Germany and the Baltic: 'The 'War of the Philosophers'V. The Clandestine Progress of the Radical Enlightenment 1680-175030. Boulainvilliers and the Rise of French31. French Refugee Deists in Exile32. The Spinozistic Novel in French33. English Deism and Europe34. Germany: The Radical Aufklaerung35. The Radical Impact in Italy36. The Clandestine Philosophical Manuscripts37. From La Mettrie to Diderot38. Epilogue: Rousseau, Radicalism, Revolution

Editorial Reviews

In Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy And The Making Of Modernity, 1650-1750, Jonathan Israel (Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) has created an impressive, benchmark work revealing how the decisive shift in the history of modern ideas by such original thinkers as Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, and others, occurring in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries resulted in the complete demolition of traditional European structures of authority, scientific thought, and belief which collectively came to be called "The Age Of Enlightenment". Radical Enlightenment is an 810 pp. volume with major sections devoted to the role of philosophy's evolution to government, society, institutions, revolution, women's roles, sexuality, censorship, culture, libraries, publishing, religion, law, science, and more. Enhanced for scholarship with an extensive bibliography and index, Radical Enlightenment will prove to be an indispensable and welcome addition to the study of both European civilization, history, and philosophy.

"His vast—and vastly impressive—book sets out to redefine the intellectual landscape of early modern Europe....Magnificent and magisterial, Radical Enlightenment will undoubtedly be one of the truly great historical works of the decade."—John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph

"[A] magnificent...study of the impact of Spinoza and his philosophy on European cultural history.... Sumptuous in the energy, clarity and breadth of its scholarship."—Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Israel's Radical Enlightenment is an audacious, pathbreaking, and deeply learned work that may be read on a multiplicity of levels. For the specialist, it is a thick empirical survey and analysis of a vast strain of thought derived from the work of Benedict de Spinoza."—Journal of Interdisciplinary History

From the Publisher