The crisis of reason : European thought, 1848-1914 / J.W. Burrow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burrow, J. W. (John Wyon), 1935-2009.

Series:

Yale intellectual history of the West

The Yale intellectual history of the West

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Europe--Intellectual life--19th century.

Europe.

Intellectual life.

Europe--Intellectual life--20th century.

Philosophy, Modern--19th century.

Philosophy, Modern.

Philosophy, Modern--20th century.

Physical Description:

xv, 271 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, [2000]

Summary:

This elegantly written book explores the history of ideas in Europe from the revolutions of 1848 to the beginning of the First World War. Broader than a narrative survey, deeper and richer than a textbook, it seeks to place the reader in the position of an informed eavesdropper on the intellectual conversations of the past.

J. W. Burrow first outlines the intellectual context of the mid-nineteenth century, the period which saw the birth of democracy in most European states, and the rise of the great modern city - Berlin, Paris and London. He then explores the impact of science and social thought on European intellectual life, from ideas in physics, social evolution and Social Darwinism, to anxieties about modernity and personal identity. The discussion encompasses powerful and fashionable concepts in evolution, art, myth, the occult and the unconscious mind. Woven into this fascinating web of ideas and movements is the work of novelists, poets, artists, playwrights, philosophers and composers. As a result the text is populated by most of the great - and many of the lesser known - intellectual figures of the age, from Mill, Bakunin, Nietzsche, Bergson and Renan to Dostoevsky, Ibsen, Pater, Proust, Clough, Flaubert, Wagner and Wilde.

The author of this brilliant synthesis wears his erudition lightly, and his book will be both entertaining and challenging for scholars, students and the general public.

Contents:

Prologue: 1848-49: The Disillusionment of the Intellectuals 1

1 The Stuff of the World and the Promises of Science 31

1.1 The New Generation 31

1.2 The Conservation of Matter and Energy; Materialist Reductionism 34

1.3 The Enigma of Consciousness and the Impact of Evolution 42

1.4 The Claims of Science: Science as Vocation 52

1.5 The Reaction against Materialism: Phenomenalism, Pragmatism and Pan-psychism 56

2 Social Evolution and the Sciences of Culture 68

2.1 A Classified World 68

2.2 Social Evolution as the Division of Labour 72

2.3 Sciences of Religion and Culture: France, Britain, Germany 77

2.4 Social Darwinism, Eugenics and Race 92

3 Community and Modernity 109

3.1 The Market and Modernity 109

3.2 Community: The Mark, the Mir and the Guild 113

3.3 The Ethical State 124

3.4 Nation and State in Germany 132

3.5 Nationalism and the Critique of Modernity: Myth and Charisma 136

4 The Elusive Self 147

4.1 The Burden of Freedom 147

4.2 'Character' 152

4.3 The Flux of Experience 160

4.4 The Unconscious 164

5 Constructing the Self 170

5.1 Work of Art and Microcosm 170

5.2 'Decadence' and 'Life' 181

5.3 The Calling and the Deed 190

6 Immanence, Revelation and Transcendence 197

6.1 Incarnation 197

6.2 Myth and Revelation 208

6.3 The Occult 219

Epilogue: Avant-garde 234.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [254]-263) and index.

ISBN:

0300083904

OCLC:

43118215