Blindness and Enlightenment: An Essay with With a new translation of Diderot's Letter on the Blind and La Mothe Le Vayer's Of a Man Born Blind

New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2011 — 256 p. — ISBN-10: 1441119329; ISBN-13: 978-1845427290. Blindness and Enlightenment presents a reading and a new translation of Diderot's Letter on the Blind. Diderot was the editor of the Encyclopédie, that Trojan horse of Enlightenment ideas, as well as a novelist, playwright, art critic and philosopher. His Letter on the Blind of 1749 is essential reading for anyone interested in Enlightenment philosophy or eighteenth-century literature because it contradicts a central assumption of Western literature and philosophy, and of the Enlightenment in particular, namely that moral and philosophical insight is dependent on seeing. Kate Tunstall's essay guides the reader through the Letter, its anecdotes, ideas and its conversational mode of presenting them, and it situates the Letter in relation both to the Encyclopedie and to a rich tradition of writing about and, most importantly, talking and listening to the blind. Contents Prologue, or Operation Enlightenment Introduction: Optics and Tactics Reading is Believing? The Blind Leading the Blind Leading the Blind Leading the Blind Leading the Blind ... Point of View and Point de Vue Groping Around in the Light A Supplement to Saunderson's Memoirs Dis/Solving Molyneux's Problem Conclusion, or Two Hours Later ... Bibliography Index Appendices Denis Diderot, The Letter on the Blind for the Use of Those Who Can See (1749) Note on the Translation Translation François de La Mothe Le Vayer, 'Of a Man-Born-Blind' (1653) Note on the Translation Translation New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2011 — 256 p. — ISBN-10: 1441119329; ISBN-13: 978-1845427290.__Blindness and Enlightenment__ presents a reading and a new translation of Diderot's Letter on the Blind. Diderot was the editor of the Encyclopédie, that Trojan horse of Enlightenment ideas, as well as a novelist, playwright, art critic and philosopher. His Letter on the Blind of 1749 is essential reading for anyone interested in Enlightenment philosophy or eighteenth-century literature because it contradicts a central assumption of Western literature and philosophy, and of the Enlightenment in particular, namely that moral and philosophical insight is dependent on seeing. Kate Tunstall's essay guides the reader through the Letter, its anecdotes, ideas and its conversational mode of presenting them, and it situates the Letter in relation both to the Encyclopedie and to a rich tradition of writing about and, most importantly, talking and listening to the blind. **Contents** Prologue, or Operation EnlightenmentIntroduction: Optics and Tactics Reading is Believing?The Blind Leading the Blind Leading the Blind Leading the Blind Leading the Blind ...Point of View and Point de VueGroping Around in the LightA Supplement to Saunderson's MemoirsDis/Solving Molyneux's Problem Conclusion, or Two Hours Later ... BibliographyIndex __Appendices__ Denis Diderot, The Letter on the Blind for the Use of Those Who Can See (1749) Note on the TranslationTranslation François de La Mothe Le Vayer, 'Of a Man-Born-Blind' (1653) Note on the TranslationTranslation International entrepreneurship is becoming the focus for major research initiatives in universities throughout the world. The final part highlights differences in economic growth among countries with different entrepreneurial traditions. "A new reading and translation, the first into English since the eighteenth-century, of Diderot's Letter on the Blind for Use by the Sighted"--Provided by publisher