Kathryn Chittick. The Language of Whiggism: Liberty and Patriotism, 1802–1830. The Enlightenment World: Political and Intellectual History of the Long Eighteenth Century. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2010. Pp. 243. $99.00 (cloth).

2012 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 1042-1043
Author(s):  
William Anthony Hay

Author(s):  
Robert Wokler ◽  
Christopher Brooke

This chapter retraces Alasdair MacIntyre's own construal of the Enlightenment Project's trajectory in order to show how his interpretation of an intellectual tradition depends above all on his assessment of its impact. It argues that MacIntyre's Enlightenment Project is largely unreconstructed, unredeemed, and undiminished in its failure, even after substantial embellishment. His three principal works comprise an extraordinary indictment of the theoretical and practical legacy of eighteenth-century philosophy. His account projects the Enlightenment's implications and influence as they stem from its aims. He holds it to blame for some of the most sinister aspects of a morally vacuous civilization, cursed by the malediction of unlicenced Reason. His intellectual history of the period forms one of the mainsprings of his own philosophy.



2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (41) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Rodrigues de Castro

RESUMOO presente trabalho é um estudo de história intelectual do direito e tem como objetivo descrever a evolução de alguns tópicos do pensamento jurídico-político setecentista. Na teoria política pró-absolutista do século XVIII, um dos tópicos mais importantes foi a figura do legislador, que aparece já no começo do século no âmbito do discurso da felicidade pública. Posteriormente, o tema volta a ser elaborado pela incipiente filosofia utilitarista que se desenvolvia ainda dentro do iluminismo com Claude-Adrien Helvétius e Cesare Beccaria. De tal forma, o tema do legislador contribuiu de forma decisiva para a transição à segunda modernidade no âmbito do pensamento jurídico, fundamentando a hegemonia da lei sobre as outras fontes de direito e facilitando a emergência dos direitos – direitos humanos, direitos fundamentais, direitos da personalidade – como centro da ordem jurídica. Procuramos seguir este itinerário, demonstrando como a questão do legislador e os temas a ele conectados vão sendo reelaborados ao longo do desenvolvimento do pensamento político setecentista. Demonstramos, assim, que no âmbito de uma fundamentação teórica do absolutismo monárquico, que se inicia com a metamorfose na compreensão do papel da coroa com relação à sociedade, o tema do legislador converte-se em pedra angular de algumas importantes tendências do pensamento jurídico moderno. Utilizamos os métodos propostos pela história conceitual.PALAVRAS-CHAVEHistória do pensamento jurídico. Legislador. Utilitarismo. Máxima felicidade. ABSTRACTThe present work is a study on the intellectual history of law and aims to describe the evolution of some topics of eighteenth-century legal-political thinking. In the eighteenth-century pro-absolutist political theory, one of the most important subjects of debate was the legislator, which appears already at the beginning of the century in the “public happiness” discourse. Subsequently, it continued to be discussed by the incipient utilitarian philosophy that started being developed within the Enlightenment with Claude-Adrien Helvétius and Cesare Beccaria. The debate on the legislator contributed decisively to the transition to the second modernity in the field of legal thought, laying the foundations for the hegemony of statutory law over other sources of law and facilitating the emergence of rights – human rights, fundamental rights, personality rights – as the center of the legal order. We seek to follow this itinerary, demonstrating how the legislator question evolved throughout the eighteenth-century political thought. We thus intend to demonstrate that within the framework of a theoretical justification for monarchical absolutism, the legislator subject became the cornerstone of some important trends in modern legal thought. We use the methods proposed by conceptual history.KEYWORDSHistory of legal thought. Legislator. Utilitarianism. Greatest happiness.



2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel Wolloch

In The Enlightenment’s Animals Nathaniel Wolloch takes a broad view of changing conceptions of animals in European culture during the long eighteenth century. Combining discussions of intellectual history, the history of science, the history of historiography, the history of economic thought, and, not least, art history, this book describes how animals were discussed and conceived in different intellectual and artistic contexts underwent a dramatic shift during this period. While in the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century the main focus was on the sensory and cognitive characteristics of animals, during the late Enlightenment a new outlook emerged, emphasizing their conception as economic resources. Focusing particularly on seventeenth-century Dutch culture, and on the Scottish Enlightenment, Wolloch discusses developments in other countries as well, presenting a new look at a topic of increasing importance in modern scholarship.



2015 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alasdair Raffe

This article argues that intellectual historians' fascination with a narrative of the emerging Scottish enlightenment has led to a neglect of ideas that did not shape enlightenment culture. As a contribution to a less teleological intellectual history of Scotland, the article examines the reception of the philosophy of René Descartes (1596–1650). Cartesian thought enjoyed a brief period of popularity from the 1670s to the 1690s but appeared outdated by the mid-eighteenth century. Debates about Cartesianism illustrate the ways in which late seventeenth-century Scottish intellectual life was conditioned by the rivalry between presbyterians and episcopalians, and by fears that new philosophy would undermine christianity. Moreover, the reception of Cartesian thought exemplifies intellectual connections between Scotland and the Netherlands. Not only did Descartes' philosophy win its first supporters in the United Provinces, but the Dutch Republic also provided the arguments employed by the main Scottish critics of Cartesianism. In this period the Netherlands was both a source of philosophical innovation and of conservative reaction to intellectual change.



2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-46
Author(s):  
Adam L Storring

Abstract This article demonstrates that the military ideas of King Frederick the Great of Prussia up to the Seven Years War (1756–1763) were primarily inspired by France, and particularly by the towering figure of King Louis XIV. It examines the intellectual inspirations for Frederick’s military ideas, showing that French military influence reflected the strength of French cultural influence in the long eighteenth century and the importance of Louis XIV as a model for monarchical self-representation. Frederick’s famous personal command of his armies reflected the Enlightenment concept of the ‘great man’ (grand homme), but Frederick thereby sought primarily to outdo the Sun King, whom Voltaire had criticized for merely accompanying his armies while his generals won battles for him. The example of Frederick thus demonstrates that not only rulers but also enlightened philosophers often looked backwards toward older monarchical examples. Frederick sought to create his own ‘Age of Louis XIV’ in the military sphere by imitating the great French generals of the Sun King. Frederick’s famous outflanking manoeuvres followed the example of famous French generals, reflecting the practice of the more mobile armies of the mid-seventeenth century. Frederick used French practice to justify his attacks with the bayonet, and his ‘short and lively’ wars reflected French strategic traditions. The evidence of French influence on Frederick seriously challenges concepts of a ‘German Way of War’, and indeed of supposed national ‘ways of war’ in general, emphasizing the need for a transnational approach to the history of military thought.



Few scholars can claim to have shaped the historical study of the long eighteenth century more profoundly than Professor H. T. Dickinson, who, until his retirement in 2006, held the Sir Richard Lodge Chair of British History at the University of Edinburgh. This volume, based on contributions from Dickinson's students, friends and colleagues from around the world, offers a range of perspectives on eighteenth-century Britain and provides a tribute to a remarkable scholarly career. Dickinson's work and career provides the ideal lens through which to take a detailed snapshot of current research in a number of areas. The book includes contributions from scholars working in intellectual history, political and parliamentary history, ecclesiastical and naval history; discussions of major themes such as Jacobitism, the French Revolution, popular radicalism and conservatism; and essays on prominent individuals in English and Scottish history, including Edmund Burke, Thomas Muir, Thomas Paine and Thomas Spence. The result is a uniquely rich and detailed collection with an impressive breadth of coverage.



Author(s):  
David Randall

The changed conception of conversation that emerged by c.1700 was about to expand its scope enormously – to the broad culture of Enlightenment Europe, to the fine arts, to philosophy and into the broad political world, both via the conception of public opinion and via the constitutional thought of James Madison (1751–1836). In the Enlightenment, the early modern conception of conversation would expand into a whole wing of Enlightenment thought. The intellectual history of the heirs of Cicero and Petrarch would become the practice of millions and the constitutional architecture of a great republic....



2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 58-66
Author(s):  
Giuliano Pancaldi

Here I survey a sample of the essays and reviews on the sciences of the long eighteenth century published in this journal since it was founded in 1969. The connecting thread is some historiographic reflections on the role that disciplines—in both the sciences we study and the fields we practice—have played in the development of the history of science over the past half century. I argue that, as far as disciplines are concerned, we now find ourselves a bit closer to a situation described in our studies of the long eighteenth century than we were fifty years ago. This should both favor our understanding of that period and, hopefully, make the historical studies that explore it more relevant to present-day developments and science policy. This essay is part of a special issue entitled “Looking Backward, Looking Forward: HSNS at 50,” edited by Erika Lorraine Milam.



This volume charts the development of protestant Dissent between the passing of the Toleration Act (1689) and the repealing of the Test and Corporation Acts (1828). The long eighteenth century was a period in which Dissenters slowly moved from a position of being a persecuted minority to achieving a degree of acceptance and, eventually, full political rights. The first part of the volume considers the history of various Dissenting traditions inside England. There are separate chapters devoted to Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, and Quakers—the denominations that traced their history before this period—and also to Methodists, who emerged as one of the denominations of ‘New Dissent’ during the eighteenth century. The second part explores the ways in which these traditions developed outside England. It considers the complexities of being a Dissenter in Wales and Ireland, where the state church was Episcopalian, as well as in Scotland, where it was Presbyterian. It also looks at the development of Dissent across the Atlantic, where the relationship between Church and state was rather more loose. The third part is devoted to revivalist movements and their impact, with a particular emphasis on the importance of missionary societies for spreading protestant Christianity from the late eighteenth century onwards. The fourth part looks at Dissenters’ relationship to the British state and their involvement in campaigns to abolish the slave trade. The final part discusses how Dissenters lived: the theology they developed and their attitudes towards Scripture; the importance of both sermons and singing; their involvement in education and print culture; and the ways in which they expressed their faith materially through their buildings.



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