The Portable Enlightenment Reader

by Kramnick, Isaac (Editor)

• ISBN13: 9780140245660
• ISBN10: 0140245669
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-12-01
• Publisher: Penguin Books

Summary

The Age of Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, also called the Age of Reason, was so named for an exultant intellectual movement that shook the foundations of Western civilization. In championing radical ideas such as individual liberty and an empirical appraisal of the universe through rational inquiry and natural experience, Enlightenment philosophers in Europe and America planted the seeds for modern liberalism, cultural humanism, science and technology, and laissez-faire capitalism. This volume brings together the era's classic works, with more than a hundred selections from a broad range of sourcesincluding works by Kant, Diderot, Voltaire, Newton, Rousseau, Locke, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, and Painethat demonstrate the pervasive impact of Enlightenment views on philosophy and epistemology as well as on political, social, and economic institutions. Included are seminal discourses on science and religion, on the social contract, on the equality (and inequality) of the sexes and the races, and on economics and markets, as well as homages to nature and sexual pleasure, and poetry and opera librettos that embody the movement's social ideals.

Author Biography

Isaac Kramnick was born in 1938 and educated at Harvard University, where he received a B.A. degree in 1959 and a Ph.D. in 1965, and at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He has taught at Harvard, Brandeis, Yale and Cornell, where he is now Professor of Government. He is married to Miriam Brody Kramnick and lives in Ithaca, New York. Among his publications are Bolingbroke and His Circle, The Rage of Edmund Burke and numerous articles on eighteenth century topics. He has edited William Godwin’s Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, The Federalist Papers by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay and, with Michael Foot, The Thomas Paine Reader for the Penguin Classics. Most recently he is the author, with Barry Sheerman, MP, of Laski: A Lift on the Left.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
Notes to Introduction	xxv
Suggestions for Further Reading	xxvii
Part One: The Enlightenment Spirit: An Overview
What Is Enlightenment?	1	(6)
Kant
The Human Mind Emerged from Barbarism	7	(10)
d'Alembert
``Encyclopedie''	17	(4)
Diderot
Definition of a Philosophe	21	(2)
Dumarsais
Le mariage de Figaro	23	(2)
Beaumarchais
The Magic Flute	25	(1)
Mozart
The Future Progress of the Human Mind	26	(13)
Condorcet
Part Two: Reason and Nature
The New Science	39	(4)
Bacon
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy	43	(5)
Newton
The New Physics	48	(3)
Cotes
On Bacon and Newton	51	(9)
Voltaire
The Rat	60	(4)
Buffon
The Utility of Science	64	(5)
Condorcet
The Organization of Scientific Research	69	(4)
Priestley
Letter to Joseph Priestley	73	(2)
Franklin
Part Three: Reason and God
On Superstition and Tolerance	75	(6)
Bayle
A Letter Concerning Toleration	81	(9)
Locke
On Enthusiasm	90	(6)
Shaftesbury
The Argument for a Deity	96	(5)
Newton
A Discourse of Free-Thinking	101	(5)
Collins
``If there is a God...''	106	(3)
Montesquieu
Of Miracles and the Origin of Religion	109	(6)
Hume
Reflections on Religion	115	(19)
Voltaire
Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar	134	(6)
Rousseau
``No need of theology...only of reason...''	140	(10)
d'Holbach
The Progress of Superstition	150	(5)
Gibbon
Unitarianism	155	(5)
Priestley
``Religion...my views of it...''	160	(6)
Jefferson
``Something of my religion...''	166	(2)
Franklin
The Temple of Reason	168	(6)
The Age of Reason	174	(7)
Paine
Part Four: Reason and Humanity
The Mind and Ideas
``I think, therefore I am...''	181	(4)
Descartes
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding	185	(3)
Locke
New Essays on Human Understanding	188	(2)
Leibnitz
On Mr. Locke	190	(5)
Voltaire
A Treatise of Human Nature	195	(7)
Hume
Man a Machine	202	(7)
la Mettrie
Of Ideas, Their Generation and Associations	209	(4)
Hartley
The Philosophy of Common Sense	213	(7)
Reid
Treatise on the Sensations	220	(2)
Condillac
Education and Childhood
Some Thoughts Concerning Education	222	(7)
Locke
Children and Civic Education	229	(6)
Rousseau
Education for Civil and Active Life	235	(7)
Priestley
Manners and Morals
The Fable of the Bees	242	(13)
Mandeville
An Essay on Man	255	(2)
Pope
Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure	257	(8)
Cleland
Enjoyment and Tahiti	265	(10)
Diderot
Concerning the Moral Sense	275	(5)
Hutcheson
The Impartial Spectator	280	(7)
Smith
A Treatise on Man	287	(10)
Helvetius
Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals	297	(9)
Kant
The Principle of Utility	306	(8)
Bentham
Taste and Art
On Wit	314	(4)
Addison
Ideas of Beauty and Virtue	318	(1)
Hutcheson
Discourse on Style	319	(3)
Buffon
Of the Standard of Taste	322	(7)
Hume
The Sublime	329	(4)
Burke
On Theater and Morals	333	(4)
Rousseau
On Custom and Fashion	337	(2)
Smith
The Beautiful and Sublime	339	(3)
Kant
Discourse on Art	342	(9)
Reynolds
Part Five: Reason and Society
Progress and History
The New Science	351	(5)
Vico
The Utility of History	356	(3)
Bolingbroke
History as Guide	359	(2)
Hume
On Progress	361	(2)
Turgot
A Critique of Progress	363	(6)
Rousseau
In Defense of Modernity	369	(9)
Voltaire
The Four-Stage Theory of Development	378	(2)
Smith
The Progressive Character of Human Nature	380	(2)
Ferguson
``How glorious, then, is the prospect...''	382	(5)
Priestley
The Perfectibility of Man	387	(8)
Condorcet
Politics and the State
The Second Treatise of Civil Government	395	(10)
Locke
The Spirit of the Laws	405	(11)
Montesquieu
Political Essays	416	(8)
Voltaire
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality	424	(6)
Rousseau
The Social Contract	430	(12)
Rousseau
Common Sense	442	(6)
Paine
The American Declaration of Independence	448	(4)
Benevolent Despotism	452	(7)
Frederick the Great
Federalist No. 10	459	(7)
Madison
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen	466	(3)
The Rights of Man	469	(4)
Paine
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice	473	(7)
Godwin
The Economy and Markets
The Royal Exchange	480	(3)
Addison
Industry and the Way to Wealth	483	(8)
Franklin
Of Luxury	491	(5)
Hume
The Physiocratic Formula	496	(6)
Quesnay
Economic Liberty	502	(3)
Turgot
The Wealth of Nations	505	(10)
Smith
Crime and Punishment
The Severity of Criminal Laws	515	(10)
Montesquieu
An Essay on Crimes and Punishments	525	(7)
Beccaria
On Torture and Capital Punishment	532	(3)
Voltaire
The State of Prisons	535	(6)
Howard
``Cases unmeet for punishment...''	541	(5)
Bentham
War and Peace
Splendid Armies	546	(4)
Voltaire
``There never was a good war...''	550	(2)
Franklin
Perpetual Peace	552	(8)
Kant
Gender and Race
Some Reflections upon Marriage	560	(8)
Astell
Duties of Women	568	(12)
Rousseau
The Fair Sex	580	(6)
Kant
Women, Adored and Oppressed	586	(5)
Paine
``A woman...gossips much...''	591	(1)
Mozart
Women's Education	591	(10)
Macaulay
On the Equality of the Sexes	601	(8)
Constantia
The Rights of Women	609	(9)
de Gouges
Vindication of the Rights of Woman	618	(11)
Wollstonecraft
``Negroes...naturally inferior to the whites...''	629	(1)
Hume
Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes	630	(7)
Woolman
The Difference between the Races	637	(3)
Kant
``Who are you, then, to make slaves...''	640	(4)
Diderot
``Bestial manners, stupidity, and vices...''	644	(1)
Long
African Slavery in America	645	(4)
Paine
Of Empires and Savages	649	(8)
Gibbon
On Indians and Negroes	657	(12)
Jefferson
``Negro''	669	(1)
Encyclopaedia Britannica
The End of Empire	670
Priestley