
The Super-Enlightenment
Daring to Know Too Much
Dan Edelstein(Editor)
Voltaire Foundation (Publisher)
Published on 6. January 2010
Book
Paperback/Softback
312 pages
978-0-7294-0990-2 (ISBN)
Description
Historians of eighteenth-century thought have implied a clear distinction between mystical or occult writing, often termed 'illuminist', and better-known forms of Enlightenment thinking and culture. But where are the boundaries of 'enlightened' human understanding?
This is the question posed by contributors to this volume, who put forward a completely new way of configuring these seemingly antithetical currents of thought, and identify a grey area that binds the two, a 'Super-Enlightenment'. Through articles exploring the social, religious, artistic, political and scientific dimensions of the Super-Enlightenment, contributors demonstrate the co-existence of apparent opposites: the enlightened and the esoteric, empiricism and imagination, history and myth, the secretive and the public, mysticism and science. The Enlightenment can no longer be seen as a sturdy, homogeneous movement defined by certain core beliefs, but one which oscillates between opposing poles in its social practices, historiography and even its epistemology: between daring to know, and daring to know too much.
This is the question posed by contributors to this volume, who put forward a completely new way of configuring these seemingly antithetical currents of thought, and identify a grey area that binds the two, a 'Super-Enlightenment'. Through articles exploring the social, religious, artistic, political and scientific dimensions of the Super-Enlightenment, contributors demonstrate the co-existence of apparent opposites: the enlightened and the esoteric, empiricism and imagination, history and myth, the secretive and the public, mysticism and science. The Enlightenment can no longer be seen as a sturdy, homogeneous movement defined by certain core beliefs, but one which oscillates between opposing poles in its social practices, historiography and even its epistemology: between daring to know, and daring to know too much.
Reviews / Votes
'By turning their attention to figures sometimes pejoratively referred to as 'illumines', the essays of this volume shed a new light on eighteenth-century thought, revalorizing often marginalized thinkers, revealing the complementarity of Super-Enlightenment and Enlightenment, and thus enhancing our understanding of the particular complexity of this period in the history of ideas.'- French Studies 'The Super Enlightenment is most significant and valuable to Enlightenment studies for the opportunity it gives modern-day academics to reflect upon the intellectual and philosophical geography of the period, but also to reconsider how they study it. It opens the field to dialogue, allowing us to ask questions we may not have otherwise considered.'
- MLN
More details
Series
Edition
New ed.
Language
English
Place of publication
Liverpool
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Liverpool University Press
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
2 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-7294-0990-2 (9780729409902)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Dan Edelstein is the William H. Bonsall Professor of French and, by courtesy, History at Stanford University. He is the author, most recently, of 'On the Spirit of Rights' (Chicago, 2018). He is also active in the field of digital humanities, notably through the "Mapping the Republic of Letters" project.
Content
Dan Edelstein, Introduction to the Super-Enlightenment
I. What limits of understanding?
Peter Reill, The hermetic imagination in the high and late Enlightenment
David Bates, Super-epistemology
Jessica Riskin, Mr Machine and the imperial me
II. The arts of knowing
Liana Vardi, Physiocratic visions
Anthony Vidler, For the love of architecture: Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and the Hypnerotomachia
Fabienne Moore, The poetry of the Super-Enlightenment: the theories and practices of Cazotte, Chassaignon, Mercier, Saint-Martin and Bonneville
III. Sacred societies
Natalie Bayer, What do you seek from us? Wisdom? Virtue? Enlightenment? Inventing a Masonic science of man in Russia
Kris Pangburn, Bonnet's theory of palingenesis: an 'Enlightened' account of personal resurrection?
Dan Edelstein, The Egyptian French Revolution: antiquarianism, Freemasonry and the mythology of nature
Tili Boon Cuille, From myth to religion in Ossian's France
Summaries
Bibliography
Index
I. What limits of understanding?
Peter Reill, The hermetic imagination in the high and late Enlightenment
David Bates, Super-epistemology
Jessica Riskin, Mr Machine and the imperial me
II. The arts of knowing
Liana Vardi, Physiocratic visions
Anthony Vidler, For the love of architecture: Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and the Hypnerotomachia
Fabienne Moore, The poetry of the Super-Enlightenment: the theories and practices of Cazotte, Chassaignon, Mercier, Saint-Martin and Bonneville
III. Sacred societies
Natalie Bayer, What do you seek from us? Wisdom? Virtue? Enlightenment? Inventing a Masonic science of man in Russia
Kris Pangburn, Bonnet's theory of palingenesis: an 'Enlightened' account of personal resurrection?
Dan Edelstein, The Egyptian French Revolution: antiquarianism, Freemasonry and the mythology of nature
Tili Boon Cuille, From myth to religion in Ossian's France
Summaries
Bibliography
Index