The Western Intellectual Tradition: From Leonardo to Hegel

Description

This book is a study of the development of ideas from the Renaissance to the opening of the nineteenth century. It is intellectual history in the largest sense, not confined to ideas in one or a few fields, but covering the whole range of Western intellectual activity during these most formative centuries. The important feature of the book is its stress on the interplay of ideas from different fields. In particular, the authors give more attention than is usual to scientific ideas, developments in literary styles and innovations in the arts. The study of ideas is an evolutionary study, and this book explains the influence of events on ideas and ideas on events. The authors, therefore, place particular stress on the background and history of these formative centuries, showing the impact of the technical and social inventions which have gone hand-in-hand with new ideas. In general, each of the chapters focuses on the outlook of a man or a group of men who epitomize a way of thinking: such men as Descartes, Bentham, and Jefferson; groups of men such as the early humanists, or the dissenting manufacturers in the Lunar Society. The book is divided into three parts: Part One, The Expanding World; Part Two, The Age of Reasoned Dissent; and Part Three, The Great Revolution. The Western Intellectual Tradition is a profound and vivid history of ideas placed in their full setting: of men, of groups of men, of events. Both the scholar and the intellectual general reader will find The Western Intellectual Tradition a work of permanent value. Preface, vii Introduction, xi Part I. The Expanding World: From Leonardo to Galileo, 1500-1630 1. Leonardo and His Times, 3 2. The City-States of Italy, 20 3. Machiavelli, 28 4. Thomas More, 44 5. Erasmus and the Humanists, 61 6. The Reformation, 76 7. The Scientific Revolution, 107 8. The Elizabethan Age, 127 Part II. The Age of Reasoned Dissent: From Cromwell to Rousseau, 1630-1760 9. The Puritan Revolution, 153 10. The Royal Society, 180 11. Hobbes and Locke, 193 12. The Method of Descartes, 216 13. The Contribution of Pascal and Bayle, 230 14. Voltaire: Science and Satire, 246 15. Montesquieu, 264 16. Rousseau, 280 Part III. The Great Revolutions: From Smith to Hegel, 1760-1850 17. The Industrial Revolution, 307 18. The Lunar Society: Businessmen and Technicians, 525 19. Adam Smith, 336 20. Benjamin Franklin, 357 21. Thomas Jefferson and the American Revolution, 575 22. The French Revolution and Its Napoleonic Sequel, 392 25. Edmund Burke, 415 24. Jeremy Bentham, 430 25. Robert Owen, 450 26. Kant and Hegel: The Emergence of History, 472 Conclusion, 491 Index of Names, 505 Index of Subjects, 515