Pragmatic Enlightenment - Recovering the Liberalism of Hume, Smith, Montesquieu, and Voltaire

A study of the political theory of the Enlightenment, focusing on four key eighteenth-century thinkers: David Hume, Adam Smith, Montesquieu and Voltaire.

List of contents

Introduction; Part I. Hegemonic Universalism?: 1. Morality in context; 2. Pragmatic liberalism; Part II. Blind Faith in Reason?: 3. The age of the limits of reason; 4. The perils of political rationalism; Part III. Atomistic Individualism?: 5. The social and encumbered self; 6. Negative liberty for a positive community; Conclusion.

About the author

Dennis C. Rasmussen is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Tufts University, Massachusetts. He is the author of The Problems and Promise of Commercial Society: Adam Smith's Response to Rousseau (2008), which received an honorable mention for the Delba Winthrop Award for Excellence in Political Science.

Summary

This is a study of the political theory of the Enlightenment, focusing on four leading eighteenth-century thinkers: David Hume, Adam Smith, Montesquieu and Voltaire. Dennis C. Rasmussen argues that these thinkers exemplify a particularly attractive type of liberalism, one that is more realistic, moderate, flexible, and contextually sensitive than most other branches of this tradition.

Product details

• Authors: Dennis C. Rasmussen
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 18.11.2013
• EAN: 9781107045002
• ISBN: 978-1-107-04500-2
• No. of pages: 357
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; History of Ideas, Europe, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Modern, Philosophy, Social & political philosophy, Ethics & moral philosophy, social and political philosophy, Western philosophy: Enlightenment, Modern Period, C 1500 Onwards