Early Modern French Thought

Early Modern French Thought
Author: Michael Moriarty
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2003
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780199261468

This book is an examination of three major French thinkers of the seventeenth century, Descartes, Pascal, and Malebranche, of whom the latter two are comparatively little studied in the English-speaking world. It deals with a common attitude of suspicion towards everyday experience, which theysee as dominated and obscured by sensation, imagination, and the presence of the body. This attitude, however, obliges them to develop detailed and sophisticated accounts of the shaping of experience not only by the body but by interpersonal and social relationships, and of the tension between humannature as it is and as we experience it. The treatment of Descartes thus challenges the interpretation that sees him as eliminating the body from 'subjectivity', while that of Pascal and Malebranche shows how their critical attitude towards experience (a fertile source for twentieth-century Frenchthinkers) is linked with their religious doctrines, especially their Augustinian emphasis on Original Sin.

Disguised Vices

Disguised Vices
Author: Michael Moriarty
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2011-09-08
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0199589372

The notions of virtue and vice are vital components of the Western ethical tradition. But in early modern France they were called into question, as writers such as La Rochefoucauld argued that what appears as virtue is in fact disguised vice. Disguised Vices analyses the underlying logic of such claims, and explores what is at stake in them.

Fallen Nature, Fallen Selves

Fallen Nature, Fallen Selves
Author: Michael Moriarty
Publisher:
Total Pages: 430
Release: 2006
Genre:
ISBN:

"Fallen Nature, Fallen Selves is an investigation of psychological and ethical thought in seventeenth-century France, emphasizing both continuities and discontinuities with ancient and medieval thought. Michael Moriarty's examination discusses most of the period's major authors, some well-known, others less so : the abstract and general analyses of philosophers and theologians (Descartes, Jansenius, Malebranche) are juxtaposed with the less systematic and more concrete investigations of writers like Montaigne and La Rochefoucauld, not to mention the theatre of Corneille, Moliere, and Racine. This study will be of interest to all researchers working in early modern French literature and in the history of ideas."--Résumé de l'éditeur

The Shock of the Ancient

The Shock of the Ancient
Author: Larry F. Norman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2011-04-15
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0226591506

The cultural battle known as the Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns served as a sly cover for more deeply opposed views about the value of literature and the arts. One of the most public controversies of early modern Europe, the Quarrel has most often been depicted as pitting antiquarian conservatives against the insurgent critics of established authority. The Shock of the Ancient turns the canonical vision of those events on its head by demonstrating how the defenders of Greek literature—rather than clinging to an outmoded tradition—celebrated the radically different practices of the ancient world. At a time when the constraints of decorum and the politics of French absolutism quashed the expression of cultural differences, the ancient world presented a disturbing face of otherness. Larry F. Norman explores how the authoritative status of ancient Greek texts allowed them to justify literary depictions of the scandalous. The Shock of the Ancient surveys the diverse array of aesthetic models presented in these ancient works and considers how they both helped to undermine the rigid codes of neoclassicism and paved the way for the innovative philosophies of the Enlightenment. Broadly appealing to students of European literature, art history, and philosophy, this book is an important contribution to early modern literary and cultural debates.

Judgement and Sense in Modern French Philosophy

Judgement and Sense in Modern French Philosophy
Author: Henry Somers-Hall
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2022-06-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1009058436

This book proposes a radical new reading of the development of twentieth-century French philosophy. Henry Somers-Hall argues that the central unifying aspect of works by philosophers including Sartre, Foucault, Merleau-Ponty, Deleuze and Derrida is their attempt to provide an account of cognition that does not reduce thinking to judgement. Somers-Hall shows that each of these philosophers is in dialogue with the others in a shared project (however differently executed) to overcome their inheritances from the Kantian and post-Kantian traditions. His analysis points up the continuing relevance of German idealism, and Kant in particular, to modern French philosophy, with novel readings of many aspects of the philosophies under consideration that show their deep debts to Kantian thought. The result is an important account of the emergence, and essential coherence, of the modern French philosophical tradition.

The History of Modern France

The History of Modern France
Author: Jonathan Fenby
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 717
Release: 2015-07-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1471129314

With the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815, the next two centuries for France would be tumultuous. Bestselling historian and political commentator Jonathan Fenby provides an expert and riveting journey through this period as he recounts and analyses the extraordinary sequence of events of this period from the end of the First Revolution through two others, a return of Empire, three catastrophic wars with Germany, periods of stability and hope interspersed with years of uncertainty and high tensions. As her cross-Channel neighbour Great Britain would equally suffer, France was to undergo the wrenching loss of colonies in the post-Second World War as the new modern world we know today took shape. Her attempts to become the leader of the European union is a constant struggle, as was her lack of support for America in the two Gulf Wars of the past twenty years. Alongside this came huge social changes and cultural landmarks but also fundamental questioning of what this nation, which considers itself exceptional, really stood - and stands - for. That saga and those questions permeate the France of today, now with an implacable enemy to face in the form of Islamic extremism which so bloodily announced itself this year in Paris. Fenby will detail every event, every struggle and every outcome across this expanse of 200 years. It will prove to be the definitive guide to understanding France.

Encyclopedia of Modern French Thought

Encyclopedia of Modern French Thought
Author: Christopher John Murray
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 748
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN: 1579583849

This work covers not only philosophy, but also all the other major disciplines, including literary theory, sociology, linguistics, political thought, theology, and more. The 240 analytical entries examine individuals such as Bergson, Durkheim, Mauss, Sartre, Beauvoir, Foucault, Levi-Strauss, Lacan, Kristeva, and Derrida; specific disciplines such as the arts, anthropology, historiography, psychology, and sociology; key beliefs and methodologies such as Catholicism, deconstruction, feminism, Marxism, and phenomenology; themes and concepts such as freedom, language, media, and sexuality; and istorical, political, social, and intellectual context. --From publisher's decription.

Fallen Nature, Fallen Selves:Early Modern French Thought II

Fallen Nature, Fallen Selves:Early Modern French Thought II
Author: Michael Moriarty
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2006-05-25
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780199291038

From the late sixteenth to the late seventeenth centuries, French writing is especially concerned with analysing human nature. The ancient ethical vision of man's nature and goal (we achieve fulfilment by living our lives according to reason, the highest and noblest element of our nature) survives, even, to some extent, in Descartes. But it is put into question especially by the revival of St Augustine's thought, which focuses on the contradictions and disorders of human desires andaspirations. Analyses of behaviour display a powerful suspicion of appearances. Human beings are increasingly seen as motivated by self-love: they are driven by the desire for their own advantage, and take a narcissistic delight in their own image. Moral and religious writers re-emphasize thetraditional imperative of self-knowledge, but in such a way as to suggest the difficulties of knowing oneself. Operating with the Cartesian distinction between mind and body, they emphasize the imperceptible influence of bodily processes on our thought and attitudes. They analyse human beings' ignorance (due to self-love) of their own motives and qualities, and the illusions under which they live their lives. Their critique of human behaviour is no less searching than that of writers who havebroken with traditional religious morality, such as Hobbes and Spinoza. A wide range of authors is studied, some well-known, others much less so: the abstract and general analyses of philosophers and theologians (Descartes, Jansenius, Malebranche) are juxtaposed with the less systematic and moreconcrete investigations of writers like Montaigne and La Rochefoucauld, not to mention the theatre of Corneille, Molière, and Racine.

How the French Think

How the French Think
Author: Sudhir Hazareesingh
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2015-09-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0465061664

An award-winning historian presents an absorbing account of the French mind, shedding light on France's famous tradition of intellectual life Why are the French such an exceptional nation? Why do they think they are so exceptional? The French take pride in the fact that their history and culture have decisively shaped the values and ideals of the modern world. French ideas are no less distinct in their form: while French thought is abstract, stylish and often opaque, it has always been bold and creative, and driven by the relentless pursuit of innovation. In How the French Think, the internationally-renowned historian Sudhir Hazareesingh tells the epic and tumultuous story of French intellectual thought from Descartes, Rousseau, and Auguste Comte to Sartre, Claude Lé-Strauss, and Derrida. He shows how French thinking has shaped fundamental Westerns ideas about freedom, rationality, and justice, and how the French mind-set is intimately connected to their own way of life-in particular to the French tendency towards individualism, their passion for nature, their celebration of their historical heritage, and their fascination with death. Hazareesingh explores the French veneration of dissent and skepticism, from Voltaire to the Dreyfus Affair and beyond; the obsession with the protection of French language and culture; the rhetorical flair embodied by the philosophes, which today's intellectuals still try to recapture; the astonishing influence of French postmodern thinkers, including Foucault and Barthes, on postwar American education and life, and also the growing French anxiety about a globalized world order under American hegemony. How the French Think sweeps aside generalizations and easy stereotypes to offer an incisive and revealing exploration of the French intellectual tradition. Steeped in a colorful range of sources, and written with warmth and humor, this book will appeal to all lovers of France and of European culture.

Publishing Drama in Early Modern Europe

Publishing Drama in Early Modern Europe
Author: Roger Chartier
Publisher:
Total Pages: 96
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN:

This book, by one of the most distinguished of contemporary cultural historians, examines the relationship between plays in performance and plays in print and the often tortuous transmission of texts from the theatre to the printing-house (and back again) in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In exploring this theme Dr Chartier touches on a wide variety of examples and topics drawn from the golden age of European drama, including the work of Shakespeare and the Jacobean theatre, Lope de Vega, and Moli¦re: punctuation as a form of orality in written texts, memorial reconstruction of theatrical performances, authorship, ownership and piracy of printed plays, the functions of plays for audiences and for readers, the significance of performance history, manuscript marginalia as evidence for the cultural contexts of reception and interpretation. The result is a fascinating and thought-provoking study of the endlessly generative cultural instability of all texts and their material forms.