The Crisis of Reason; European Thought, 1848–1914

by J. W. Burrow

• ISBN13: 9780300097184
• ISBN10: 0300097182
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2002-11-10
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

This elegantly written book explores the history of ideas in Europe from the revolutions of 1848 to the beginning of the First World War. Outlining the intellectual context and exploring the impact of science and social thought on European intellectual life, the discussion encompasses powerful concepts in evolution, art, myth, the occult and the unconscious mind. Woven into this fascinating web is the work of novelists, poets, artists, playwrights, philosophers and composers, resulting in a text populated by most of the great -- and many of the lesser known -- intellectual figures of the age, from Mill, Nietzsche and Bergson to Dostoevsky, Flaubert and Wilde. Book jacket.

Author Biography

J. W. Burrow was Professor of European Thought at Oxford University and Fellow of Balliol College

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Preface	x
Acknowledgements	xvi
Prologue: 1848--49: The Disillusionment of the Intellectuals	1	(30)
The Stuff of the World and the Promises of Science	31	(37)
The New Generation	31	(3)
The Conservation of Matter and Energy; Materialist Reductionism	34	(8)
The Enigma of Consciousness and the Impact of Evolution	42	(10)
The Claims of Science: Science as Vocation	52	(4)
The Reaction against Materialism: Phenomenalism, Pragmatism and Pan-psychism	56	(12)
Social Evolution and the Sciences of Culture	68	(41)
A Classified World	68	(4)
Social Evolution as the Division of Labour	72	(5)
Sciences of Religion and Culture: France, Britain, Germany	77	(15)
Social Darwinism, Eugenics and Race	92	(17)
Community and Modernity	109	(38)
The Market and Modernity	109	(4)
Community: The Mark, the Mir and the Guild	113	(11)
The Ethical State	124	(8)
Nation and State in Germany	132	(4)
Nationalism and the Critique of Modernity: Myth and Charisma	136	(11)
The Elusive Self	147	(23)
The Burden of Freedom	147	(5)
`Character'	152	(8)
The Flux of Experience	160	(4)
The Unconscious	164	(6)
Constructing the Self	170	(27)
Work of Art and Microcosm	170	(11)
`Decadence' and `Life'	181	(9)
The Calling and the Deed	190	(7)
Immanence, Revelation and Transcendence	197	(37)
Incarnation	197	(11)
Myth and Revelation	208	(11)
The Occult	219	(15)
Epilogue: Avant-garde	234	(20)
Select Bibliography	254	(10)
Index	264