The Enlightenment and Its Shadows

"The Enlightenment", a broad and complex phenomenon, is a vital part of the history of European culture. It shaped intellectual life from the middle of the 17th century until the early 19th century and in its shadows many intellectual battles are still being fought. The contributors to this original and provocative book subject both the Enlightenment and subsequent responses to it to critical scrutiny. Committed to an interdisciplinary approach, the contributors are drawn from a variety of disciplines - art history and theory, government, history, language and linguistics, literature, philosophy, sociology, music and economics. They present a distinctively broad and polemical view of the Enlightenment, enhanced by the imaginative use of a number of illustrations. The essays demonstrate the continuing importance of the Enlightenment to a range of current debates on such issues as human rights, nature, economics, and colonialism. They focus on England, Scotland, France and Germany, and their innovative approach does justice to the complexity of figures like Voltaire, Ferguson, Kant, Burke and Rousseau.