Theory and Practice in the Eighteenth Century:

Writing between Philosophy and Literature


Editors: Alexander Dick and Christina Lupton


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

Contents

Christina Lupton And Alexander Dick, 'Introduction: Writing And The Literary Aesthetics Of Eighteenth-Century Philosophy'

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

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

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