Historical Pessimism in the French Enlightenment PDF
Preview Historical Pessimism in the French Enlightenment
HARVARD HISTORICAL MONOGRAPHS XXXVI Published under the direction of the Department of History from the income of The Robert Louis Stroock Fund Historical Pessimism in the Trench Enlightenment By HENRY VYVERBERG CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1958 © 1958, by the President and Fellows of Harvard College Distributed in Great Britain by Oxford University Press, London LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER 58-9000 Printed in Great Britain To Crane Brinton Contents Introduction i Parti THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 1. The Man of Reason—Descartes 9 2. The Man of God—Pascal 14 3. The Churchman—Bossuet 18 4. The Littérateurs—Boileau, Perrault, Fénelon 23 5. The Libertine—Saint-Evremond 31 6. The Critic—Bayle 36 7. The Eclectic—Fontenelle 40 Pari II HISTORICAL OPTIMISM IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY FRANCE 8. Religion and Optimism—Lignac and Bonnet 49 9. Theories of Regeneration—Deschamps, Morelly, Mably, Rousseau 54 10. The Great Doctrines of Progress—Turgot and Condorcet 62 Part III DECADENCE—REALITY MEASURED AGAINST REASON 11. Decadence, Reason, and Nature 75 12. The Aesthetic Norm 86 viii Contents Part IV HISTORICAL FLUX—FACTS IN A CHANGING UNIVERSE 13. The Two Empiricisms 99 14. The New Aesthetics 109 15. Historical Interaction 122 16. The Cultural Unit 132 17. The World in Flux 140 Part V THE MEN AND THE DOCTRINES 18. Pessimism in Moderation—Montesquieu 155 19. The Imperfect Dream—Voltaire 170 20. Disillusionment and Diversity—Diderot 189 21. Ethical Pessimism—Vauvenargues 201 22. Social Pessimism—Linguet 207 23. Materialistic Optimism—Holbach 211 24. Indifferentism—La Mettrie 218 25. Perversion—Sade 223 Conclusion 229 An Essay on Bibliography 232 Index 247 Historical Pessimism in the French Enlightenment
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