What's Left of Enlightenment? A Postmodern Question
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.94 (686 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0804740259 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 216 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 0000-00-00 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
rs said A Brilliant Anthology. This remarkable book reexamines the intellectual history of eighteenth century France and Germany in order to bring to light a richer, more nuanced view of this pivotal period. More specifically, many writers, commonly characterized as "post-modernist," have used the European Enlightenment as a "whipping boy" in order to promote their own vision of the history of ideas. The editors use a very judicious strategy in order to analyze this tendency to attenuate the richness of 18th century European culture: they choose essays that are about the Enlightenment; they also choose essays that expose how the dubious
It is superb because it is so reflective, self-critical, and sometimes polemical and partisan. "This volume is an original and stimulating contribution to modern intellectual history and to the history of philosophy. Its authors are senior scholars in philosophy, intellectual history, and cultural studies who address large questions in their fields." —Gary Kates, Trinity University. The scholarship is superb but not in the usual sense
Part I, Enlightenment or Postmodernity?, reflects on the way in which contemporary discussion characterizes the two movements as radical alternatives. In so doing, the authors focus on three general areas. Part III, A Postmodern Enlightenment?, complicates the perceived dichotomy between Enlightenment and Postmodernity by pointing to the existence within the Enlightenment of elements frequently seen as characteristic of Postmodernity.. Postmodernity requires a modernity to be repudiated and superseded, and the tenets of this modernity have invariably been identified with the so-called Enlightenment Project. Part II, Critical Confrontations, provides a kind of archaeology of this opposition by charting a series of critical engagements by those who have affirmed or demeaned Enlightenment values in the twentieth century. This volume aims to explore critically the now conventional opposition between Enlightenment and Postmodernity and question some of the conclusions drawn from it. It has become increasingly clear in recent years that, for all their differen