Human Nature, Cultural Diversity, and the French Enlightenment.
Title:
Human Nature, Cultural Diversity, and the French Enlightenment.
Author:
Vyverberg, Henry.
ISBN:
9780195345223
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (236 pages)
Contents:
Contents -- Introduction -- 1 From Nature to Human Nature -- NATURE AS FACT OR NORM -- NATURAL LAW AND THE LAWS OF NATURE -- HUMAN NATURE -- 2 The Uniformity of Human Nature -- THE QUESTION -- REASON AND PASSION -- INSTINCTUAL ETHICS AND RELIGION -- UNIFORMITY AFFIRMED -- 3 The Diversity of Human Beings -- THE ROLE OF EXPERIENCE -- EXPERIENTIAL RELIGION AND ETHICS -- UNIFORMITY CHALLENGED -- 4 Physical and Moral Influences on National Character -- VOYAGES AND TRAVEL -- CLIMATE -- INSTITUTIONS AND INDIVIDUALS -- NATIONAL CHARACTER -- 5 Understanding Cultural Diversity -- THE QUESTION -- PROVISIONAL GENERALIZATIONS -- 6 A Cultural Miscellany -- RUSSIANS AND OTHERS -- JEWS -- BLACKS AND NATIVE AMERICANS -- 7 The Mildly Exotic East -- THE ISLAMIC WORLD -- INDIA -- CHINA AND THE CHINESE SAGE -- THE WANING OF THE CHINESE VOGUE -- 8 Historical Diversity -- THE PLACE OF HISTORY -- VOLTAIRE AND HISTORY -- HISTORY IN THE ENCYCLOPEDIA -- 9 The Case of Ancient Greece -- GREECE IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT -- GREECE IN THE ENCYCLOPEDIA -- 10 The Case of the Middle Ages -- AN ENLIGHTENMENT CONSENSUS? -- THE MIDDLE AGES IN THE ENCYCLOPEDIA -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y.
Abstract:
In this work, Henry Vyverberg traces the evolution and consequences of a crucial idea in French Enlightenment thought--the idea of human nature. Human nature was commonly seen as a broadly universal, unchanging entity, though perhaps modifiable by geographical, social, and historical factors. Enlightenment empiricism suggested a degree of cultural diversity that has often been underestimated in studies of the age. Evidence here is drawn from Diderot's celebrated Encyclopedia and from a vast range of writing by such Enlightenment notables as Voltaire, Rousseau, and d'Holbach. Vyverberg explains not only the age's undoubted fascination with uniformity in human nature, but also its acknowledgment of significant limitations on that uniformity. He shows that although the Enlightenment's historical sense was often blinkered by its notions of a uniform human nature, there were also cracks in this concept that developed during the Enlightenment itself.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
Genre:
Electronic Access:
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