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The Rise of the Social Sciences and the Formation of Modernity
This volume offers one of the first systematic analyses of the rise of modern social science. Contrary to the standard accounts of various social science disciplines, the essays in this volume demonstrate that modern social science actually emerged during the critical period between 1750 and 1850. It is shown that the social sciences were a crucial element in the conceptual and epistemic revolution, which parallelled and partly underpinned the political and economic transformations of the modern world. From a consistently comparative perspective, a group of internationally leading scholars takes up fundamental issues such as the role of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution in the shaping of the social sciences, the changing relationships between political theory and moral discourse, the profound transformation of philosophy, and the constitution of political economy and statistics.
The Matter of Mind
What influence did René Descartes' concept of mind-body dualism have on early modern conceptions of the self? In The Matter of Mind, Christopher Braider challenges the presumed centrality of Descartes' groundbreaking theory to seventeenth-century French culture. He details the broad opposition to rational self-government among Descartes' contemporaries, and attributes conventional links between Descartes and the myth of the ‘modern subject’ to post-structuralist assessments. The Matter of Mind presents studies drawn from a range of disciplines and examines the paintings of Nicolas Poussin, the drama of Pierre Corneille, and the theology of Blaise Pascal. Braider argues that if early modern thought converged on a single model, then it was the experimental picture based on everyday experience proposed by Descartes' sceptical adversary, Michel de Montaigne. Forceful and provocative, The Matter of Mind will encourage lively debate on the norms and discourses of seventeenth-century philosophy.
Pascal and Rhetoric
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Pascal
Michael Moriarty presents the deepest and broadest study for many years of Blaise Pascal's philosophy and theology, as represented in his Pensees, a seminal work in the development of modern thought. Central themes are the distinction between faith and reason, the contradictions within human nature, and the relation between mind and body.
Volition, Rhetoric, and Emotion in the Work of Pascal
This study identifies and analyzes a compelling theory and practice of persuasion that integrates the complexity of human desire. It demonstrates how the philosophical component in Pascal's description of the will makes a seamless integration into a vehicle of persuasion and poetics, providing a privileged viewpoint for understanding the author's complete works, arguing that the notion of will is of fundamental importance in Pascal's anthropology as well as in his rhetoric. This avenue of interpretation is both fruitful and difficult, because the word "volonte" means very different things in Pascal and in modern French. Beginning by contextualizing the notion of 'volonte' and explaining its expanded use in the seventeenth-century lexicon, the author then endeavors to show that Pascal borrows an essentially Augustinian paradigm of desire to create a depiction of the will divided against itself, surreptitiously yearning for what its bearer does not want.
Pascal and Disbelief
Seeks to answer a question that has puzzled readers since the Pensees -- a work conceived principally as an Apology for the Christian Religion -- first appeared in 1670: To whom is Pascal's call to Christian conversion really addressed?
Literary Silences in Pascal, Rousseau, and Beckett
To explore literary silence is to explore the relationships between texts and the silence of the ineffable. This study describes silent dynamics through readings of Pascal's 'Pensees', Rousseau's 'Reveries', and Beckett's trilogy 'Molloy', 'Malone Dies' and 'The Unnameable'.
The Good Life in the Scientific Revolution
Amid the unrest, dislocation, and uncertainty of seventeenth-century Europe, readers seeking consolation and assurance turned to philosophical and scientific books that offered ways of conquering fears and training the mind—guidance for living a good life. The Good Life in the Scientific Revolution presents a triptych showing how three key early modern scientists, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, and Gottfried Leibniz, envisioned their new work as useful for cultivating virtue and for pursuing a good life. Their scientific and philosophical innovations stemmed in part from their understanding of mathematics and science as cognitive and spiritual exercises that could create a truer mental and spiritual nobility. In portraying the rich contexts surrounding Descartes’ geometry, Pascal’s arithmetical triangle, and Leibniz’s calculus, Matthew L. Jones argues that this drive for moral therapeutics guided important developments of early modern philosophy and the Scientific Revolution.
Falsehood Disguised
Through close textual analysis of La Rochefoucauld's writings, Richard Hodgson studies the moralist's use of metaphors such as the mask as well as his very personal concept of what constitutes an etre vrai, or genuine person. The study then traces the impact of La Rochefoucauld's ideas on thinkers from Vauvenargues and Chamfort to Nietzsche, Lautreamont, and Lacan. It concludes by suggesting reasons why La Rochefoucauld's concept of truth continues to have such enormous appeal to the modern reader.
Catholic Particularity in Seventeenth-Century French Writing
A vivid account of the belief system of early-modern France as expressed in different writing genres from sermons to martyr tragedies, lyric poetry to spiritual autobiography. Parish considers the distinctive doctrines that the heritage of the Catholic Reformation brought to light.
