The Eighteenth century is often represented, applying Tom Paine's phrase, as 'The Age of Reason': an age when progressive ideals triumphed over autocracy and obscurantism, and when notions of order and balance shaped consciousness in every sphere of human knowledge. Yet the debates which surrounded the development of Eighteenth-century thought were always open to troubling doubts. Was nature itself truly an ordered entity, as Newton had argued, or was it a mass of chaotic, randomly moving atoms, as some materialist thinkers believed? This book explores the tensions and conflicts in these debates through a series of interdisciplinary essays from leading international scholars, each challenging the idea that the Eighteenth century was an age of order.
List of Illustrations
Preface
Notes on the Contributors
Introduction: Concepts of Order in the Eighteenth Century, their Scope and their Frailties; D.Donald
PART I: THE ORDERING OF THE WORLD AND OF HUMAN AFFAIRS
Providence, Predestination and Progress: Or, Did the Enlightenment Fail?; J.C.D.Clark
'One is All, and All is One': The Great Chain of Being in Berkley's Siris; C.Bradatan
Ordering the Political World: The Pattern of Politics in Eighteenth-Century Britain; F.O'Gorman
The Ordering of Family and Gender in the Age of Enlightenment; R.Sweet
PART II: THE ORDERING OF KNOWLEDGE: BRIDGING NATURE AND CULTURE
Félibien and the Circle of Colbert: A Re-Evaluation of the Hierarchy of Genres; B.Anderman
The Values of the Mineral Kingdom and the French Republic; J.Simon
The Système Figuré des Conaissances Humaines and the Structure of Knowledge in the Encyclopédie; D.Adams
'Encircling the Arts and Sciences': British Encyclopaedism after the French Revolution; J.Hawley
Index
FRANK O'GORMAN has been Professor of History at the University of Manchester, UK since 1992 where he was successively Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader in the same institution. He has published on a wide variety of subjects, including the development of political parties, the history of political thought, the electoral politics of the period and the nature of popular ritual behaviour. His latest work was The Long Eighteenth Century: Political and Social History, 1688-1832 (1998).
DIANA DONALD was formerly Head of the Department of History of Art and Design at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She is the author of The Age of Caricature: Satirical Prints in the Reign of George III (Yale University Press, 1996) and co-editor, with Christiane Banerji, of Gilray Observed: The Earliest Account of his Caricatures in 'London and Paris' (Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Description
The Eighteenth century is often represented, applying Tom Paine's phrase, as 'The Age of Reason': an age when progressive ideals triumphed over autocracy and obscurantism, and when notions of order and balance shaped consciousness in every sphere of human knowledge. Yet the debates which surrounded the development of Eighteenth-century thought were always open to troubling doubts. Was nature itself truly an ordered entity, as Newton had argued, or was it a mass of chaotic, randomly moving atoms, as some materialist thinkers believed? This book explores the tensions and conflicts in these debates through a series of interdisciplinary essays from leading international scholars, each challenging the idea that the Eighteenth century was an age of order.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Notes on the Contributors
Introduction: Concepts of Order in the Eighteenth Century, their Scope and their Frailties; D.Donald
PART I: THE ORDERING OF THE WORLD AND OF HUMAN AFFAIRS
Providence, Predestination and Progress: Or, Did the Enlightenment Fail?; J.C.D.Clark
'One is All, and All is One': The Great Chain of Being in Berkley's Siris; C.Bradatan
Ordering the Political World: The Pattern of Politics in Eighteenth-Century Britain; F.O'Gorman
The Ordering of Family and Gender in the Age of Enlightenment; R.Sweet
PART II: THE ORDERING OF KNOWLEDGE: BRIDGING NATURE AND CULTURE
Félibien and the Circle of Colbert: A Re-Evaluation of the Hierarchy of Genres; B.Anderman
The Values of the Mineral Kingdom and the French Republic; J.Simon
The Système Figuré des Conaissances Humaines and the Structure of Knowledge in the Encyclopédie; D.Adams
'Encircling the Arts and Sciences': British Encyclopaedism after the French Revolution; J.Hawley
Index
Authors
FRANK O'GORMAN has been Professor of History at the University of Manchester, UK since 1992 where he was successively Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader in the same institution. He has published on a wide variety of subjects, including the development of political parties, the history of political thought, the electoral politics of the period and the nature of popular ritual behaviour. His latest work was The Long Eighteenth Century: Political and Social History, 1688-1832 (1998).
DIANA DONALD was formerly Head of the Department of History of Art and Design at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She is the author of The Age of Caricature: Satirical Prints in the Reign of George III (Yale University Press, 1996) and co-editor, with Christiane Banerji, of Gilray Observed: The Earliest Account of his Caricatures in 'London and Paris' (Cambridge University Press, 1999).
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