Introducing the Enlightenment: A Graphic Guide

315 Pages·2010·81.88 MB·English

by  Lloyd Spencer

Published by Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre, 39–41 North Road,
London N7 9DP
Email: [email protected]
www.introducingbooks.com

ISBN: 978-178578-006-6
Text copyright © 2012 Icon Books Ltd Illustrations copyright © 2012 Icon
Books Ltd The author and illustrator has asserted their moral rights Originating
editor: Richard Appignanesi No part of this book may be reproduced in any
form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Let There Be Light...
The Radiance of the Absolute Monarchs
Paris, the Capital of the Enlightenment
Beginnings of the Light
England’s “Glorious Revolution”
An Age of Revolutions
Coffee-houses, Social Clubs and Journalism
Locke’s “Tabula Rasa”
The Language of the Self
Understanding the Limits of Our Understanding
Psychology and the Novel
Tristram Shandy
Locke’s Social Influence
Fictions in the Service of Truth
The Adventures of ...
Philosophers’ Novels
Candide
Novels of the Enlightenment
The Idea of the Noble Savage
The Persian Letters
Voltaire Flees to England
Letters on England
Voltaire on Religion in England
Freedom of Conscience and the Commercial Spirit
On Parliament
The Patron Saints of the Enlightenment
The Father of Experimental Philosophy
John Locke’s Politics
Isaac Newton
The Philosophes
Enlightened Woman
Enlightened Mistresses
Readers and Censors
Industry and Science
The Encyclopédie
The Tree of Knowledge
Who Are the “Great Men” of History?
The Importance of Crafts or Trades
Metaphysics and Machinery
The Pinnacle of Success
The Philosophes Under Attack
The Crisis of 1758
Malesherbes – or “Monsieur Guillaume”
For and Against the King
The Adventures of Monsieur Guillaume
Denis Diderot
The “Secret History” of His Soul
Diderot and Friends
What is an Encyclopédie?
Art of the Enlightenment
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78)
Rousseau’s Challenge
Discourse on the Origins of Inequality
Voltaire vs. Rousseau
Nature and Natural History
Nature as a System: Linnaeus
Nature as History: Buffon
The Scandal of Materialism
La Mettrie and Helvétius
Materialism and the Improvement of Human Beings
Holbach
The Factory of Freethinkers
D’Alembert’s Dream
The Dream
The French Parlements
Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws
Natural Law
An Unkempt Masterpiece
Individual Liberty and The Rule of Law
Enlightening the Despots
Frederick II of Prussia
Catherine the Great of Russia
Instructions to the Empress
The Priest and the Philosopher
Philosophers Will Never Form a Religious Sect
The Catholic Church in France
The Age of Enlightenment as an Age of Faith
The Social Necessity of Religion
Putting the Fear of Hell ...
The Church, the State and Civil Rights
Freemasonry
The Great Watchmaker
The Scepticism of David Hume
A Treatise of Hum(e)an Nature
Music of the Enlightenment
Savage Rousseau
Voyage to the Interior
Rousseau’s Confessions
The First Romantic
Adam Smith (1723–90)
A Theory of Moral Sentiments
Wealth of Nations, 1776
The Invisible Hand
Smith and Rousseau
Samuel Johnson (1709–84)
Smith Joins Dr Johnson’s Literary Club
Benjamin Franklin (1706–90)
The American Revolution
Declaration of the Rights of Man
The Poor and the Slaves
Condemnation of Slavery
The Defence of Slavery
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)
What is Enlightenment?
The Counter-Enlightenment
Georg Hamann (1730–88)
Language, the Organon* of Reason
Sturm und Drang
Voltaire at Ferney
A One-Man Amnesty International
The Canaille
Crisis in the Old Régime
The French Revolution
The End of the Enlightenment
The Apotheosis of Jean-Jacques
The Ideal Republic
The Enlightenment Project – Finished or Unfinished?
Further Reading
Index
Let There Be Light...
The Enlightenment was an intellectual current that galvanized Europe during the
course of the 18th century. Centred in Paris, it spread itself across the whole of
Europe to the American colonies. Networks of writers and thinkers gave the 18th
century a remarkable intellectual coherence.
The intellectuals of the Enlightenment felt themselves to be part of a great
movement representing the highest aspirations and possibilities of mankind.
They were reformers who believed their cause was best served by the new
passion for argument, criticism and debate.