French Liberalism And Education In The Eighteenth Century

Author : Kingsley Martin
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330361627
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (616 download)

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Download or read book French Liberal Thought in the Eighteenth Century written by Kingsley Martin and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-25 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from French Liberal Thought in the Eighteenth Century: A Study of Political Ideas From Bayle to Concorcet The present work, long, established as a text-book in British and American universities, has been out of print for years. Even on the second-hand book market it was difficult to obtain, and the library copies showed signs of strain through over-use. No other book in the English language has superseded it, which is, perhaps, the greatest compliment one can pay to its author. Paul Hazard in France, Ernst Cassirer in Germany, Carl Becker in the United States, Basil Willey in this country, have all in recent years contributed to our deeper understanding of the spirit of the eighteenth century, but none of these writers, eminent as they are, has made Kingsley Martins volume superfluous. One reason for the persistent vitality of this book lies in its method. Mr. Martin illustrates it when he writes: "In this inquiry there are three influences to consider: firstly, the inheritance with which the ideas came into the eighteenth century; secondly, the social conditions and political events in which they developed, and thirdly, the individual peculiarities of men whose own experience necessarily affected the shape and the phraseology of the creed they formulated." Thus Mr. Martin uses a combination of three methods: the "great thinker" method, the philosophic and chronological methods (page 19). I believe that it is this methodological insight which has made the author avoid the pitfalls into which so many histories of political ideas have fallen. They neglect, to use Mr. Martin's own words, "the selective power of events, the actual importance of minor writers in forming doctrines which other and more famous men completed." Another reason why the present book has kept its freshness must undoubtedly be seen in the fact that its author built its foundation on the original sources. His analysis, for instance, of the influence of the salons is remarkable. So is his treatment of Bayle, Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.