Nature and Culture Ethical Thought in the French Enlightenment

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Crocker, Lester G.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Enlightenment.

Ethics--France--History.

Ethics.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (540 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Johns Hopkins University Press 2019

Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press [1963]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Originally published in 1963. Perhaps the most generative ethical question of eighteenth-century France was how to live a virtuous and happy life at the same time. During the Age of Enlightenment, Christianity fell out of vogue as the dominant and authoritative moral code. In place of Christianity's emphasis on sin and redemption in light of a supposed afterlife, present happiness became recognized as an appropriate end goal among French Enlightenment thinkers. French intellectuals struggled to find equilibrium between nature (a person's individual goals and needs) and culture (the political, economic, and social organization of humans for a collective good). Enlightenment discourse generated a unique cultural moment in which thinkers addressed the problems of humans' moral coexistence through the dichotomy of nature and culture. Lester Crocker addresses these questions in an overview of ethical thought in eighteenth-century France.

Contents:

Cover

Copyright

Contents

Introduction

The Nature and Genesis of Moral Experience

1. Natural Law

I. A Brief Historical View

II. Natural Law in Eighteenth-Century France

III. Variations and Vicissitudes of Natural Law Theory

2. Moral Sense Theories

3. Experiential Origins of Moral Values

4. Corollaries

I. Conscience

II. Justice and Law

III. Reason and Feeling

Moral Values

5. The Utilitarian Synthesis

I. Hedonism

II. Social Utilitarianism

III. Virtue and Happiness

IV. Altruism and Anti-utilitarianism

6. The Nihilist Dissolution

I. The Seeds of Nihilism

Sade and the Fleurs du Mal

7. Ethics and Politics

Epilogue

Supplementary Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliography.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-8018-0148-6

1-4214-3578-0

OCLC:

1123119243