The Enlightenment and the Fate of Knowledge: Essays on the Transvaluation of Values

221 Pages·2019·2.015 MB·English

by  Martin L. Davies

The Enlightenment and the Fate of
Knowledge
The Enlightenment is generally painted as a movement of ideas and society
lasting from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century, but this book
argues that the Enlightenment is an essential component of modernity itself.
In the course of the study, Martin Davies offers an original world-view and a
critique of some recent interpretations of the Enlightenment.
Martin L. Davies is Emeritus Reader at the University of Leicester, United
Kingdom. He is the author of Historics: Why History Dominates Contemporary
Society, also published by Routledge.
Routledge Approaches to History
24 Universal History and the Making of the Global
Edited by Hall Bjørnstad, Helge Jordheim and Anne Régent-Susini
25 Cowrie Shells and Cowrie Money
A Global History
Bin Yang
26 A Personalist Philosophy of History
Bennett Gilbert
27 Historical Parallels, Commemoration and Icons
Edited by Andreas Leutzsch
28 Historians Without Borders
New Studies in Multidisciplinary History
Edited by Lawrence Abrams and Kaleb Knoblauch
29 Leopold von Ranke
A Biography
Andreas D. Boldt
30 Teleology and Modernity
Edited by William Gibson, Dan O’Brien and Marius Turda
31 Historia Ludens
The Playing Historian
Edited by Alexander von Lünen, Katherine J. Lewis, Benjamin Litherland and
Pat Cullum
32 The Aesthetics of History
Alun Munslow
33 Public Uses of Human Remains and Relics in History
Edited by Silvia Cavicchioli and Luigi Provero
34 The Enlightenment and the Fate of Knowledge
Essays on the Transvaluation of Values
Martin L. Davies
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/
Rout ledge -Appr oache s-to- Histo ry/bo ok-se ries/ RSHIS THRY
The Enlightenment and the
Fate of Knowledge
Essays on the Transvaluation
of Values
Martin L. Davies
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
© 2020 Martin L. Davies
The right of Martin L. Davies to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Davies, Martin L., author.
Title: The Enlightenment and the fate of knowledge : essays on the
transvaluation of values / Martin L. Davies.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2019. |
Series: Routledge approaches to history; 33 | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019039361 (print) | LCCN 2019039362 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367086893 (hardback) | ISBN 9780429023774 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Enlightenment–Influence. | Knowledge, Theory of. |
History–Philosophy.
Classification: LCC B802 .D375 2019 (print) | LCC B802 (ebook) |
DDC 121–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019039361
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019039362
ISBN: 978-0-367-08689-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-02377-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
For Ras

Philosopher consiste à invertir la direction habituelle du travail de la pensée.
– Henri Bergson, La Pensée et le mouvant
Même l’histoire de la philosophie est tout à fait inintéressante si elle ne se propose
pas de réveiller un concept endormi, de le rejouer sur une nouvelle scène, fût ce au
prix de le tourner contre lui-même.
– Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, Qu’est-ce que la philosophie?
Je parle après toutes les histoires.
– Montesquieu, De l’Esprit des Lois

Contents
Preface xi
Prolegomena 1
Introduction: The Enlightenment: A reconception of its
fate and value 22
1. On the Enlightenment’s fate and value 22
2. The Enlightenment as ‘general intellect’ 27
3. Modernity: The Enlightenment invalidated 31
4. The transvaluation of knowledge values: Knowledge as fatality 40
5. Knowledge: Its cognitive adequacy; its sufficient reason 47
6. Modernity: Parapraxis; the psychopathology of historicized life 52
7. Enlightenment and Modernity: Their common conceptual field 57
Notes 62
1 The Enlightenment and the fate of meaning 63
1. The quest for conceptual contentment 63
2. Enlightenment as dissent 66
3. At the limits of comprehension 80
4. Enlightenment, Counter-Enlightenment, and the psychogenesis of
nihilism 87
Notes 95
2 The Enlightenment and the fate of history 97
1. The sophism of historical continuity 97
2. Historicist designs: Deterring conceptual experimentation 105
3. Historicism: Its naïve form 119
4. Historicism: Its sophistical form 125
5. Modernity as discontinuity 139
Notes 145