The Enlightenment and the intellectual foundations of modern culture

A panoramic survey of the philosophical landscape of the Enlightenment period (1648 - 1789), covering the sense of selfhood, art and aesthetics, morality, social theory, science of history, religion and faith during that period. The advent of modern science, particularly the mechanism of Newtonian theory, knocked down many of the medieval concepts about the cosmos, Providence, creation and human's place in the world, and ushered in rationalism as the mainstream thinking of the Enlightenment period. This does not mean key thinkers in this period were of one or similar stripe. They held different, and sometimes diametrical, views. Louis Dupre summarizes and comments on the views of key philosophical figures in this period, including Locke, Hume, Diderot, Rousseau, Leibniz, Lessing, Spinoza, Kant, and many others. The text is somewhat dense, especially for the uninitiated, but it is definitely accessible. Overall, it is a very good survey of the philosophical views of the period.

"This immensely readable book will cause readers to rethink the Enlightenment and to see its positive aspects. It will also add crucial historical perspective to current discussions of modernity."-Donald Verene, Emory University

Author Biography: Louis Dupré is the T.L. Riggs Professor Emeritus of Philosophy of Religion at Yale University.

Library Journal

The Enlightenment bequeathed to the West ideas and ideals the authority of reason, the autonomy of the rational subject, the primacy of human rights still cherished as the foundation of democratic societies. These two books resurrect the Enlightenment and its ideals, criticizing their shortcomings as well as praising their value. The magisterial overview by Dupr (philosophy of religion, Yale Univ.; Light from Light: An Anthology of Christian Mysticism) ranges over the Enlightenment's key thinkers, from Kant, Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau to Vico, Herder, Hamann, and Gibbon. He examines areas of thinking from art and science to politics and religion as he demonstrates just how deep-seated ideas such as the "nonauthoritarian view of morality" are in our culture. Dupr provides a first-rate history of ideas and an enormously helpful introduction to the Enlightenment. Recommended for all libraries. Bronner's (Critical Theory and Society: A Reader; Imagining the Possible) approach is narrower, less an overview and more a rebuttal of Mark Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment, which claimed that the Enlightenment gave rise to totalitarianism and its excesses in the West. Bronner contends that Enlightenment ideas such as the focus on individual rights, democracy, social reform, and justice have kept the impulse toward a fair and just democracy alive. Without such rational discourses about all areas of politics and society, he argues, democracy would not now be the vital political institution it is. While Bronner's book lacks the elegance and majesty of Dupr 's, it is nevertheless an important call to recover our Enlightenment roots in an age characterized by a loss of reason and rational discourse. Recommended for large libraries. Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Lancaster, PA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

The prestige of the Enlightenment has declined in recent years. Many consider its thinking abstract, its art and poetry uninspiring, and the assertion that it introduced a new age of freedom and progress after centuries of darkness and superstition presumptuous. In this book, an eminent scholar of modern culture shows that the Enlightenment was a more complex phenomenon than most of its detractors and advocates assume. It includes rationalist as well as antirationalist tendencies, a critique of traditional morality and religion as well as an attempt to establish them on new foundations, even the beginning of a moral renewal and a spiritual revival. The Enlightenment's critique of tradition was a necessary consequence of the fundamental modern principle that we humans are solely responsible for the course of history. Hence we can accept no belief, no authority, no institutions that are not in some way justified. This foundation, for better or for worse, determined the course of the following centuries. Despite contemporary reactions against it, the Enlightenment continues to shape our own time and still distinguishes Western culture from any other.

In 1936, twenty-year-old Edward Weismiller became the youngest poet to win the prestigious Yale Series of Younger Poets prize. Today, more than sixty years later, he retains that distinction. Yale University Press here reintroduces Edward Weismiller - now the oldest living Younger Poet - with the publication of his latest book of poetry. Weismiller’s is "a talent that has kept faith with itself and its sources," says W. S. Merwin, current judge of the Younger Poets Series.

In Walking Toward the Sun, youthful lyricism has given way to plainness of speech - even spareness. These poems are honest and unflinching, always striking in their prosody. They will remind some readers of Yeats, for they convey nobility in the face of old age, infirmity, and disappointment. Weismiller sings powerfully about a world of loss, but he is never grim or despairing. The poet in old age remains hopeful, open to possibility, and always aware of beauty in the smallest places.

"The prestige of the Enlightenment has declined in recent years. Many consider its thinking abstract, its art and poetry uninspiring, and the assertion that it introduced a new age of freedom and progress after centuries of darkness and superstition presumptuous. In this book, an eminent scholar of modern culture shows that the Enlightenment was a more complex phenomenon than most of its detractors and advocates assume. It included rationalist as well as antirationalist tendencies, a critique of traditional morality and religion as well as an attempt to establish them on new foundations, even the beginning of a moral renewal and a spiritual revival. The forces of the so-called anti-Enlightenment form an essential part of the Enlightenment itself."--BOOK JACKET. An eminent scholar of modern culture argues that the Enlightenmentthe importance of which has been vigorously debated in recent yearswas a more complex phenomenon than either its detractors or advocates assume. Ranging as it does over art, morality, religion, science, philosophy, social theory, and a good deal besides, [Duprs book] is a marvel of scholarly erudition. . . . Formidably well-researched, . . . [this] would make an excellent introduction to Enlightenment ideas for the general reader.Terry Eagleton, Harpers Magazine This immensely readable book will cause readers to rethink the Enlightenment and to see its positive aspects. It will also add crucial historical perspective to current discussions of modernity.Donald Verene, Emory University A definition and a provisional justification A different cosmos A new sense of selfhood Toward a new conception of art The moral crisis The origin of modern social theories The new science of history The religious crisis The faith of the philosophers Spiritual continuity and renewal. An eminent scholar of modern culture argues that the Enlightenment - the importance of which has been vigorously debated in recent years - was a more complex phenomenon than either its detractors or advocates assume