The Structure and Form of the French Enlightenment

The Structure and Form of the French Enlightenment [2 Bd.e]. Vol.I: Esprit Philosophique / Vol. II: Esprit Révolutionnaire. XXIII, 690 / X, 456 S. How did the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries affect the form taken by the French Enlightenment? Ira Wade explores this question, suggests the inner unity of the Enlightenment s form, and defines its relationship to the ideas that motivated the French Revolution. In these volumes he thus continues the inquiry begun in his earlier works. — The author describes the influence on the Enlightenment of the intellectual currents that had been active in France, particularly the historical and humanistic esprit critique and the scientific esprit moderne. In the first volume he traces the transformation they brought about in religion, ethics, esthetics, science, politics, economics, and self-knowledge. His analysis of works by Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau including the Encyclopedic defines their organic unity and clarifies contradictions that appear to threaten the coherence, consistency, and logical continuity of the esprit philosophique. The second volume probes the writings of Morelly, Helvetius, Holbach, Mably, and Condorcet as they reveal the transformation of the esprit philosophique into the esprit revolutionnaire.