Fallen Nature, Fallen Selves: Early Modern French Thought IIOUP Oxford, 25. maj 2006 - 430 strani From the late sixteenth to the late seventeenth centuries, French writing is especially concerned with analysing human nature. The ancient ethical vision of man's nature and goal (we achieve fulfilment by living our lives according to reason, the highest and noblest element of our nature) survives, even, to some extent, in Descartes. But it is put into question especially by the revival of St Augustine's thought, which focuses on the contradictions and disorders of human desires andaspirations. Analyses of behaviour display a powerful suspicion of appearances. Human beings are increasingly seen as motivated by self-love: they are driven by the desire for their own advantage, and take a narcissistic delight in their own image. Moral and religious writers re-emphasize thetraditional imperative of self-knowledge, but in such a way as to suggest the difficulties of knowing oneself. Operating with the Cartesian distinction between mind and body, they emphasize the imperceptible influence of bodily processes on our thought and attitudes. They analyse human beings' ignorance (due to self-love) of their own motives and qualities, and the illusions under which they live their lives. Their critique of human behaviour is no less searching than that of writers who havebroken with traditional religious morality, such as Hobbes and Spinoza. A wide range of authors is studied, some well-known, others much less so: the abstract and general analyses of philosophers and theologians (Descartes, Jansenius, Malebranche) are juxtaposed with the less systematic and moreconcrete investigations of writers like Montaigne and La Rochefoucauld, not to mention the theatre of Corneille, Molière, and Racine. |
Vsebina
Introduction | 1 |
PART ONE HUMAN NATURE | 59 |
PART TWO SELFLOVE AND CONCUPISCENCE | 157 |
PART THREE PROBLEMS OF SELFKNOWLEDGE | 273 |
Conclusion | 387 |
405 | |
421 | |
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Fallen Nature, Fallen Selves:Early Modern French Thought II: Early Modern ... Michael Moriarty Predogled ni na voljo - 2006 |
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1st pub actions amour amour-propre analysis appetite Aquinas argues Aristotle Arnauld Augustine Augustine’s Augustinian autres awareness behaviour Biblioth`eque bien body Bruy`ere c’est Cambridge Caract`eres Cartesian charité charity cœur conception concupiscence corruption Descartes Descartes’s desire Dieu discourse discussion distinction divine doctrine early modern Early Modern French Eclaircissement edition effect Esprit ethical fait Fénelon François Lamy French God’s grace happiness hommes human nature IaIIae illusion inclination interest Jansenist Jansenius kind l’amour l’esprit l’homme l’on la Pléiade La Rochefoucauld Lamy Malebranche man’s maxim metaphysical mind MMOD Montaigne moral Moralists motives n’est Nicole Nicole’s objects Œuvres one’s oneself original original sin ourselves Paris Pascal passions Pensées perspective philosophy Pierre Nicole pleasure Port-Royal propre psychological purely qu’elle qu’il qu’on rational reason relationship Rochefoucauld self-deception self-interest self-knowledge self-love Senault sense seventeenth-century social soul spiritual Stoic theological theory thought tout Traité University Press virtue vols writers XVIIe si`ecle