Common Sense in Early 18th-Century British Literature and Culture

Common Sense in Early 18th-Century British Literature and Culture
Author: Christoph Henke
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2014-10-14
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3110343401

While the popular talk of English common sense in the eighteenth century might seem a by-product of familiar Enlightenment discourses of rationalism and empiricism, this book argues that terms such as ‘common sense’ or ‘good sense’ are not simply synonyms of applied reason. On the contrary, the discourse of common sense is shaped by a defensive impulse against the totalizing intellectual regimes of the Enlightenment and the cultural climate of change they promote, in order to contain the unbounded discursive proliferation of modern learning. Hence, common sense discourse has a vital regulatory function in cultural negotiations of political and intellectual change in eighteenth-century Britain against the backdrop of patriotic national self-concepts. This study discusses early eighteenth-century common sense in four broad complexes, as to its discursive functions that are ethical (which at that time implies aesthetic as well), transgressive (as a corrective), political (in patriotic constructs of the nation), and repressive (of otherness). The selection of texts in this study strikes a balance between dominant literary culture – Swift, Pope, Defoe, Fielding, Johnson – and the periphery, such as pamphlets and magazine essays, satiric poems and patriotic songs.

Uses of Education

Uses of Education
Author: Stephen Bygrave
Publisher: Bucknell University Press
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2009
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0838757251

What is education for? The question framed in the second half of the eighteenth century in England is still urgent. Posed in textbooks, histories, conduct books, economic treatises, novels, and other kinds of writing, it was asked about punishment, the classical curriculum, the low status of teachers, education of the poor, public school or private tutor, and the education of girls. Uses of Education shows the fundamental question to be about the potential and limits of Enlightenment thought as it seeks to be embodied in institutions.

Parliamentary Thinking

Parliamentary Thinking
Author: Kari Palonen
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2018-07-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3319905333

The parliamentary style of politics has been formed over centuries; nobody theorised it in advance. This book presents a thought experiment to spell out key principles of the parliamentary ideal type of politics. Max Weber offers the main intellectual inspiration, Westminster parliament provides the main historical reference and the author’s studies on parliamentary procedure and rhetoric provide the background for the book. Parliamentary acting and thinking offer us the best example of politics as a contingent and controversial activity. Using a parliamentary imagination, the author constructs the ideal type in five main chapters: dissensual modes of proceeding; rhetoric of parliamentary debate; parliamentary formation and control of government; parliamentarians as politicians; and parliamentary time as their common subtext. In the last two chapters, the book outlines the possibilities of extending parliamentary judgment to politics beyond parliaments proper and the chances for parliamentary politics succeeding today.

The Elements of a Polite Education; Carefully Selected From the Letters of the Late Right Honble Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, to His Son. By G. Gregory,

The Elements of a Polite Education; Carefully Selected From the Letters of the Late Right Honble Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, to His Son. By G. Gregory,
Author: Philip Dormer Stanhope
Publisher: Gale Ecco, Print Editions
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018-04-18
Genre:
ISBN: 9781379506911

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. The Age of Enlightenment profoundly enriched religious and philosophical understanding and continues to influence present-day thinking. Works collected here include masterpieces by David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as well as religious sermons and moral debates on the issues of the day, such as the slave trade. The Age of Reason saw conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism transformed into one between faith and logic -- a debate that continues in the twenty-first century. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library T101771 London: printed for R. Phillips. And sold by T. Hurst and J. Wallis; Carpenter and Co.; Lackington, Allen, and Co. S. Hamilton, printer, [1800]. [12],456p., plate; 12°