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Peter Gay

The Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Paganism (Enlightenment an Interpretation) Paperback – July 17, 1995

by Peter Gay (Author)

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The eighteenth-century Enlightenment marks the beginning of the modern age, when the scientific method and belief in reason and progress came to hold sway over the Western world.

In the twentieth century, however, the Enlightenment has often been judged harshly for its apparently simplistic optimism. Now a master historian goes back to the sources to give a fully rounded account of its true accomplishments.

Print length

592 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

July 17, 1995
Dimensions

5.5 x 1.1 x 8.2 inches
ISBN-10

0393313026
ISBN-13

978-0393313024
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Editorial Reviews

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"Extraordinary and brilliant."
― R. R. Palmer, Journal of Modern History

About the Author

Peter Gay (1923―2015) was the author of more than twenty-five books, including the National Book Award winner The Enlightenment, the best-selling Weimar Culture, and the widely translated Freud: A Life for Our Time.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Revised edition (July 17, 1995)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 592 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393313026
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393313024
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #569,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,186 in Modern Philosophy (Books)
- #1,307 in England History
- #22,053 in World History (Books)

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Desert Rat

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Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2021

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No book about the Enlightenment can be a complete success. It is impossible to write about it with more than moderate let alone
e complete objectivity. Much like Bloom observed about reading critiques of Shakespeare the man - you learn nothing about Shakespeare and everything about the the critic. This author partially overlaps other writers and covers their omissions. He includes Franklin and Jefferson at least as peripheral players. (Certain eurocentric authors dismiss anything on the western side of the Atlantic as anomalies)

Kant is quoted that although it was the Age of Enlightenment it was not an enlightened age. The idea here is that the philosophers of the age sought enlightenment but the world they lived only began the process of attaining it rather than achieving it. Presenting the Enlightenment as a "process" rather than a well defined philosophical system is one of his interpretations I found especially useful.

Gay spends some time distinguishing mythic vs critical thought. Mythic he associates with the Christian medieval period. That is a concept that may be difficult for a modern reader to truly comprehend -- a world where your daily life, thoughts, and motives are immersed in a body of unchangeing revealed knowledge as opposed to a world of evidentiary knowledge which is contantantly subject to the possability of change. It was against the mythic character of that medeival world that the philosophes of the Enlightenment rebelled.

7 people found this helpful

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Igor Faynshteyn

A highly learned and erudite treatment of the Enlightenment; but not for the uninitiated.

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2015

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Let me start off by saying that I took way too long to finish reading this book (about 8 months) - reading other books in between and just taking multiple breaks from reading. So the views I express in this review will be somewhat colored by my discontinuous reading.

To say that this is a difficult book to get through is an understatement. Indeed it is the chief reason why I got distracted several times from reading it. It is certainly not for the uninitiated in the history of the enlightenment period (which unfortunately I was); and it is far from a chronological narrative. Rather it is an intellectual history of the period, and as such it is an interpretation of ideas predominantly of the 17th and 18th centuries.

The book is organized more by subject, rather than strictly by chronology. Although some semblance of chronology is there, the author consistently jumps back and forth between different time periods as relevant to the subject he is discussing. As the author is of Germanic origin (he emigrated to the US when he was 18) the prose is somewhat difficult due to the uncommon placement of verbs, twisted use of language and somewhat archaic grammar (keeping in mind that the book was published in the 1960's). However, that is not to say that the prose is not at all fluid. The flow stoppers, at least for me, were the constant and numerous references to different people, their works and the occasional vocabulary words I had to look up.

The reader gets introduced to the "little flock of philosophes", who were the chief players during the enlightenment period. But far from being a synthesis of their respective philosophies, the author's focus is on the various influences upon the philosophes, from intellectual to sociological. In that sense, it's as much a social history as it is an intellectual history. Instead of, say, analyzing Voltaire's ideas and his contribution to the enlightenment, the focus is mainly on what Voltaire himself read, who and which schools of thought influenced him, his interaction with his peers and contemporaries and etc.

The first half of the book focuses and analyzes the influences that the antiquities had on the philosophes, from Plato to Cicero and Lucretius, to Erasmus and the philosophers and scientists of the middle ages. The second half of the book analyzes the stance of the philosophes toward Christianity and the various different ways in which that interaction and relationship manifested. The book finishes with analyzing David Hume and the methods he employed, with much success, in mounting his opposition to, and ultimately decidedly destroying Christianity and other revealed religions, and their accompanying doctrines.

All in all, the book is very scholarly, learned, erudite and sophisticated. However, it is not to be taken lightly or skimmed. And if one loses focus, better to reread the relevant passages than to keep heading down the black hole. As mentioned, although the prose is not the most fluid, it's far from a pedantic or a dull read. Indeed, the writing at times is witty, sarcastic and sharp. So, don't be put off too much by the prose and its occasional difficulty, but be prepared to do some heavy lifting at times. The knowledge gained from this book will be of high quality and satisfying, and the decision to read the book unregrettable.

35 people found this helpful

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JePense

The mind and soul of the Enlightenment

Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2021

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Peter Gay's perspective of the Enlightenment philosophers and the cultural mind itself is comprehensively informed and engaging. He is able to see into the minds, hearts and souls of the "philosophes" and bring them and their enlightenment, in its many facets, flaws, effects, and process, to life. Almost a third of the book is an overview, a literary critique, of his comprehensive sources, and how they served him in creating the book. The author traces the roots of the Enlightenment in exquisite detail in the examination of Greek and Roman classical sources, the development of "enlightenment" thought and the critical, questioning movement into science. His study moves through the Middle Ages and the rise of Christianity and Scholasticism. There is a deep fullness of understanding of the cultural changes wrought by the Enlightenment thinkers that comes forth is Gay's profound understanding of the mind and soul of the times. A most wonderful presentation of the Enlightenment!

3 people found this helpful

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Gary

Tells what Enlightenment thinkers thought and why

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2014

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The book steps the reader through the development of the Enlightenment thinkers themselves. In addition to learning about the development of thought during the 18th century, I learned about Greek thinkers (stoic, skeptics and Epicureans), the Roman thinkers (especially Cicero), and the Renaissance period of thought.

This is an amazing book. It probably should not be a readers first introduction to the Enlightenment period, but it can be the reader's second. The book is very erudite and I was constantly looking up words and people or schools of thought on my Kindle, the author does presume the reader is very familiar with the philosophers of the Enlightenment and who they read. I would not have been able to finish this book in book form because of the constant stream of new concepts the author uses, but, on the Kindle (or equivalent device) this book is a delight to read. Wikipedia tells me the book was originally published in 1967 and was revised in the 1990s, but basically as I was reading the book it became apparent almost all of the citations were pre-1967. That gives the modern reader an interesting perspective on how the scholar from the 60s saw the thought of the 1700s.

21 people found this helpful

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Abiola O. Lapite

An introduction well worth reading

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 1, 2016

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This is a superb introduction to the enlightenment, both as a social movement as well as an intellectual one. Gay does an excellent job of communicating the passion behind all of the efforts to bring about an age of reason.

I should also add that thanks to Gay's command of the written word, the book is truly a joy to read; there were times when I found myself wondering how much I could really be learning, given how beautifully the sentences flowed. I suppose it says something about the mediocre standard of writing in most modern scholarly works that one's suspicions should be aroused when encountering a volume by as accomplished a stylist as Peter Gay.

One person found this helpful

Ms A Falloon

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 26, 2015

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Excellent value

Brad

Essential history of Englightenment Thought.

Reviewed in Canada on October 17, 2021

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This book is a great classic. Contains endless mind-expanding analyses. This particular edition includes only volume one of what eventually became a two volume history.

Alok

Loved the book

Reviewed in India on May 21, 2019

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Loved the book

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