|
Showing 1 - 3 of
3 matches in All Departments
The theories of language and society of Giambattista Vico
(1668-1744) are examined in this textual analysis of the full range
of his theoretical writings, with special emphasis on his
little-known early works. Vico's fundamental importance in the
history of European ideas lies in his strong anti-Cartesian,
anti-French and anti-Enlightenment views. In an age in which
intellectuals adopted a rational approach, Vico stressed the
nonrational element in man - in particular, imagination - as well
as social and civil relationships, none of them reducible to the
scientific theories so popular in his time.
The easy accessibility of political fiction in the long eighteenth
century made it possible for any reader or listener to enter into
the intellectual debates of the time, as much of the core of modern
political and economic theory was to be found first in the fiction,
not the theory, of this age. Amusingly, many of these abstract
ideas were presented for the first time in stories featuring
less-than-gifted central characters. The five particular works of
fiction examined here, which this book takes as embodying the core
of the Enlightenment, focus more on the individual than on social
group. Nevertheless, in these same works of fiction, this
individual has responsibilities as well as rights-and these
responsibilities and rights apply to every individual, across the
board, regardless of social class, financial status, race, age, or
gender. Unlike studies of the Enlightenment which focus only on
theory and nonfiction, this study of fiction makes evident that
there was a vibrant concern for the constructive as well as
destructive aspects of emotion during the Enlightenment, rather
than an exclusive concern for rationality.
The easy accessibility of political fiction in the long eighteenth
century made it possible for any reader or listener to enter into
the intellectual debates of the time, as much of the core of modern
political and economic theory was to be found first in the fiction,
not the theory, of this age. Amusingly, many of these abstract
ideas were presented for the first time in stories featuring
less-than-gifted central characters. The five particular works of
fiction examined here, which this book takes as embodying the core
of the Enlightenment, focus more on the individual than on social
group. Nevertheless, in these same works of fiction, this
individual has responsibilities as well as rights-and these
responsibilities and rights apply to every individual, across the
board, regardless of social class, financial status, race, age, or
gender. Unlike studies of the Enlightenment which focus only on
theory and nonfiction, this study of fiction makes evident that
there was a vibrant concern for the constructive as well as
destructive aspects of emotion during the Enlightenment, rather
than an exclusive concern for rationality.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
Hampstead
Diane Keaton, Brendan Gleeson, …
DVD
R66
Discovery Miles 660
|