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Democratic Enlightenment : Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights, 1750-1790

ISBN: 9780199548200 | 019954820X

Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Pub. Date: 9/25/2011

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Summary Table of Contents Author Biography

Jonathan Israel's radical new account of the late Enlightenment highlights forgotten currents and figures. Running counter to mainstream thinking, he demonstrates how a group of philosophe-revolutionnaires provided the intellectual powerhouse of the French Revolution, and how their ideas connect with modern Western democracy.

That the Enlightenment shaped modernity is uncontested. Yet remarkably few historians or philosophers have attempted to trace the process of ideas from the political and social turmoil of the ... MORElate eighteenth century to the present day. This is precisely what Jonathan Israel now does. InDemocratic Enlightenment, Israel demonstrates that the Enlightenment was an essentially revolutionary process, driven by philosophical debate. The American Revolution and its concerns certainly acted as a major factor in the intellectual ferment that shaped the wider upheaval that followed, but the radicalphilosopheswere no less critical than enthusiastic about the American model. From 1789, the General Revolution's impetus came from a small group ofphilosophe-revolutionnaires, men such as Mirabeau, Sieyes, Condorcet, Volney, Roederer, and Brissot. Not aligned to any of the social groups represented in the French National assembly, they nonetheless forged "la philosophie moderne"--in effect Radical Enlightenment ideas--into a world-transforming ideology that had a lasting impact in Latin America, Canada and eastern Europe as well as France, Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries. In addition, Israel argues that while all French revolutionary journals powerfully affirmed thatla philosophie modernewas the main cause of the French Revolution, the main stream of historical thought has failed to grasp what this implies. Israel sets the record straight, demonstrating the true nature of the engine that drove the Revolution, and the intimate links between the radical wing of the Enlightenment and the anti-Robespierriste "Revolution of reason." Acclaim for earlier volumes in the trilogy: "His vast--and vastly impressive--book sets out to redefine the intellectual landscape of early modern Europe. Magnificent and magisterialwill undoubtedly be one of the truly great historical works of the decade." --John Adamson,Sunday Telegraph "The scholarship is breathtaking. Israel has read everything, absorbed every nuance, followed up every byway." --Peter Watson,New Statesman "An enormously impressive piece of scholarship. The breadth and depth of the author's reading are breathtaking andEnlightenment Contestedis set to become the definitive work for philosophers as well as historians on this extraordinary period." -- Keith Richmond,Tribune

The Enlightenment shaped modernity. Western values of representative democracy and basic human rights, gender and racial equality, individual liberty, and freedom of expression and the press, form an interlocking system that derives directly from the Enlightenment's philosophical revolution. This fact is uncontested - yet remarkably few historians or philosophers have attempted to trace the process of ideas from the political and social turmoil of the late eighteenth century to thepresent day. This is precisely what Jonathan Israel now does. He demonstrates that the Enlightenment was an essentially revolutionary process, driven by philosophical debate. From 1789, its impetus came from a small group of philosophe-revolutionnaires, men such as Mirabeau, Sieyes, Condorcet, Volney, Roederer, and Brissot. Not aligned to any of the social groups who took the lead in the French National assembly, the Paris commune, or the editing of the Parisian revolutionary journals, they nonetheless forged 'la philosophie moderne' --in effect Radical Enlightenment ideas -- into a world-transforming ideology that had a lasting impact in Latin America and eastern Europe as well as France, Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries. Whilst all French revolutionary journals clearly stated that la philosophie moderne was the main cause of the French Revolution, the main stream of historical thought has failed to grasp what this implies. Israel sets the record straight, demonstrating the true nature of the engine that drove the Revolution, and the intimate links between the radical wing of the Enlightenment and the anti-Robespierriste 'Revolution of reason'.

1. Introduction
Part 1: The Radical Challenge
2. Nature and Providence: Earthquakes and the Human Condition
3. The Encyclopedie Suppressed (1752-60)
4. Rousseau against the Philosophes
5. Voltaire, Enlightenment and the European Courts
6. Anti-Philosophes
7. Central Europe: Aufklarung divided
Part II: Rationalizing the Ancien Regime
8. Hume, Scepticism, and Moderation
9. Scottish Enlightenment and Man's Progress
10. Enlightened Despotism
11. Aufklarung and the Fractur... MORE

Jonathan Israel is Professor of Modern History at the Institute for Advance Study, Princeton. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and corresponding fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. His previous books include The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477-1806, Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750, and Enlightenment Contested: Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man 1670-1752.

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Democratic Enlightenment : Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights, 1750-1790

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