Theory and Practice in the Eighteenth Century:

Writing between Philosophy and Literature

Editors: Alexander Dick and Christina Lupton

Hb: 336pp: 2008
978 1 85196 938 8: 234x156mm: £60.00/$99.00

978 1 85196 573 1

This collection of essays by leading eighteenth-century specialists considers the Enlightenment in its historical and rhetorical contexts. Using literary interpretation and discourse analysis, the collection presents eighteenth-century philosophy as a material practice of writing, publication, conversation, and dissemination.

The essays analyse how Enlightenment philosophers viewed their own writing; how their institutional positions as teachers and writers influenced their understanding of human consciousness; and how their insights into the nature of philosophical writing constitutes our own academic legacy. Eighteenth-century empiricists and common-sense philosophers, who were concerned fundamentally with problems of communication, information management, education, and publicity, offer a crucial illustration of the way linguistic action underlies philosophical ideas.

Sample pages

Readership

Philosophy, History of European Thought, Scottish Enlightenment and Eighteenth-Century Studies

Introduction: Writing And The Literary Aesthetics Of Eighteenth-Century Philosophy

Part I: Writing Philosophy
1 Philosophy/Nonphilosphy And Derrida’s (Non) Relations With Eighteenth-Century Empiricism – Nicholas Hudson
2 Locke’s Desires – Jonathan Kramnick
3 Philosophy And Politeness, Moral Autonomy And Malleability In Shaftesbury’s Characteristics – Joseph Chaves
4 Preposterous Hume – Mark Blackwell
5 Hume, Religion, Literary Form: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion – John Richetti
6 The Primitive In Adam Smith’s History – Maureen Harkin
7 Reid, Writing, and the Mechanics of Common Sense – Alexander Dick

Part II: Knowing Literature
8 The Epistemology Of Genre – Jonathan Sadow
9 After The Summum Bonum: Novels, Treatises, And Enquiries After Happiness – Brian Michael Norton
10 Criticism Sympathy, And The Problem Of Representation In David Hume’s Earliest Works – Adam Budd
11 David Hume And Jane Austen On Pride: Ethics In The Enlightenment – Eva Dadlez
12 Can Julie Be Trusted? Rousseau And The Crisis Of Constancy In Eighteenth-Century Philosophy – Nancy Yousef
13 Music vs. Conscience In Wordsworth’s Poetry – Adam Potkay