Modern Enlightenment and the Rule of Reason (Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy)

The essays in this volume pose the question common usage has obscured: was the Enlightenment truly enlightened or enlightening? Scholarly investigation has sometimes avoided the question by confining itself to historical particulars of 18th-century Europe. Yet the most visible proponents of the Enlightenment, the philosophers, insisted that their project originated a century earlier, in the writings of the first self-proclaimed modern philosophers. This volume seeks philosophical clarity of modernity's enlightenment by beginning with Bacon, Descartes and Hobbes. Consideration of Pascal, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hume, Roussea, Lessing and Kant - all philosophical critics, or reformers, of the Enlightenment - furthers the study of its legacy by displaying its diversity. Finally, the book indicates the Enlightenment's vitality by outlining ways it continues to hold philosophical sway in this century. Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Introduction 10 1 Just and Arbitrary Authority in Enlightenment Thought • ALAN CHARLES KORS 31 2 Bacon’s Reform of Nature • RICHARD KENNINGTON 49 3 Method and Metaphysics: The Foundation of Philosophy in the Discourse. on Method • PAMELA KRAUS 64 4 Hobbes and the Dogmatism of the Enlightenment • ROBERT P. KRAYNAK 86 5 Pascal on Certainty and Utility • JOHN C. MCCARTHY 101 6 Spinoza, Biblical Criticism, and the Enlightenment • PAUL J. BAGLEY 133 7 Leibniz, Reason, and Evil • PHILIPPE RAVNAUD 159 8 Hume’s Unnatural Religion (Some Humean Footnotes) • F. J. CROSSON 177 9 Poetry and Praxis in Rousseau's Emile: Human Rights and the Sentiment of Humanity • TERENCE E. MARSHALL 196 10 Lessing at God’s Left Hand • KENNETH L. SCHMITZ 222 11 Kant and the Mythic Roots of Morality • JOHN R. SILBER 241 12 The Enlightenment Project in Twentieth-Century Philosophy • NICHOLAS CAPALDI 266 Contributors 292 Selected Bibliography 296 Index 312 Intro -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. Alan Charles Kors / Just and Arbitrary Authority in Enlightenment Thought -- 2. Richard Kennington / Bacon's Reform of Nature -- 3. Pamela Kraus / Method and Metaphysics: The Foundation of Philosophy in the Discourse on Method -- 4. Robert P. Kraynak / Hobbes and the Dogmatism of the Enlightenment -- 5. John C. Mccarthy / Pascal on Certainty and Utility -- 6. Paul J. Bagley / Spinoza, Biblical Criticism, and the Enlightenment -- 7. Philippe Raynaud / Leibniz, Reason -- and Evil -- 8. F.J. Crosson / Hume's Unnatural Religion (Some Humean Footnotes) -- 9. Terence E. Marshall / Poetry and Praxis in Rousseau's Emile: Human Rights and the Sentiment of Humanity -- 10. Kenneth L. Schmitz / Lessing at God's Left Hand -- 11. John R. Silber / Kant and the Mythic Roots of Morality -- 12. Nicholas Capaldi / The Enlightenment Project in Twentieth-Century Philosophy -- Contributors -- Bibliography -- Index The essays in this volume pose the question common usage has obscured: was "the Enlightenment" truly enlightened or enlightening? Scholarly investigation has sometimes avoided the question by confining itself to historical particulars of eighteenth-century Europe. Yet the most visible proponents of the Enlightenment, the philosophes, insisted that their project originated a century earlier, in the writings of the first self-proclaimed modern philosophers. This volume seeks philosophical clarity of modernity's enlightenment by beginning with Bacon, Descartes, and Hobbes. Consideration of Pascal, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hume, Rousseau, Lessing, and Kant - all philosophical critics, or reformers, of the Enlightenmentfurthers the study of its legacy by displaying its diversity. Finally, the book indicates the Enlightenment's vitality by outlining ways it continues to hold philosophical sway in this century