Early Modern French Thought
Title | Early Modern French Thought PDF eBook |
Author | Michael Moriarty |
Publisher | Oxford University Press, USA |
Pages | 294 |
Release | 2003 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 9780199261468 |
This book is an examination of three major French thinkers of the seventeenth century, Descartes, Pascal, and Malebranche, of whom the latter two are comparatively little studied in the English-speaking world. It deals with a common attitude of suspicion towards everyday experience, which theysee as dominated and obscured by sensation, imagination, and the presence of the body. This attitude, however, obliges them to develop detailed and sophisticated accounts of the shaping of experience not only by the body but by interpersonal and social relationships, and of the tension between humannature as it is and as we experience it. The treatment of Descartes thus challenges the interpretation that sees him as eliminating the body from 'subjectivity', while that of Pascal and Malebranche shows how their critical attitude towards experience (a fertile source for twentieth-century Frenchthinkers) is linked with their religious doctrines, especially their Augustinian emphasis on Original Sin.
Fallen Nature, Fallen Selves
Title | Fallen Nature, Fallen Selves PDF eBook |
Author | Michael Moriarty |
Publisher | Oxford University Press, USA |
Pages | 449 |
Release | 2006-05-25 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0199291039 |
"Fallen Nature, Fallen Selves is an investigation of psychological and ethical thought in seventeenth-century France, emphasizing both continuities and discontinuities with ancient and medieval thought. Michael Moriarty's examination discusses most of the period's major authors, some well-known, others less so: the abstract and general analyses of philosophers and theologians (Descartes, Jansenius, Malebranche) are juxtaposed with the less systematic and more concrete investigations of writers like Montaigne and La Rochefoucauld, not to mention the theatre of Corneille, Moliere, and Racine. This study will be of interest to all researchers working in early modern French literature and in the history of ideas."--BOOK JACKET.
Disguised Vices
Title | Disguised Vices PDF eBook |
Author | Michael Moriarty |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 420 |
Release | 2011-09-08 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0199589372 |
The notions of virtue and vice are vital components of the Western ethical tradition. But in early modern France they were called into question, as writers such as La Rochefoucauld argued that what appears as virtue is in fact disguised vice. Disguised Vices analyses the underlying logic of such claims, and explores what is at stake in them.
Modern French Philosophy
Title | Modern French Philosophy PDF eBook |
Author | Vincent Descombes |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 212 |
Release | 1980 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 9780521296724 |
A critical introduction to modern French philosoophy, from one of the liveliest contemporary practitioners.
Early Modern French Thought
Title | Early Modern French Thought PDF eBook |
Author | Michael Moriarty |
Publisher | |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2006 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
Method and Variation
Title | Method and Variation PDF eBook |
Author | Emma Gilby |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2013 |
Genre | French literature |
ISBN | 9781907975363 |
The contributions in this collection, from some of the most distinguished and exciting scholars working in French studies today, aim to bring into question oppositional relationships between terms such as 'philosophy' and 'fiction' when these are applied to early modern texts.
Disguised Vices
Title | Disguised Vices PDF eBook |
Author | Michael Moriarty |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | |
Release | 2011-09-08 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0191618187 |
The notions of virtue and vice are essential components of the Western ethical tradition. But in early modern France they were called into question, as writers, most famously La Rochefoucauld, argued that what appears as virtue is in fact disguised vice: people carry out praiseworthy deeds because they stand to gain in some way; they deserve no credit for their behaviour because they have no control over it; they are governed by feelings and motives of which they may not be aware. Disguised Vices analyses the underlying logic of these arguments, and investigates what is at stake in them. It traces the arguments back to their sources in earlier writers, showing how ancient philosophers, particularly Aristotle and Seneca, formulated the distinction between behaviour that counts as virtuous and behaviour that only seems so. It explains how St Augustine reinterpreted the distinction in the light of the difference between pagans and Christians, and how medieval and early modern theologians strove to reconcile Augustine's position with that of Aristotle. It examines the restatement of Augustine's position by his hard-line early modern followers (especially the Jansenists), and the controversy to which this gave rise. Finally, it examines La Rochefoucauld's critique of virtue and assesses the extent of its links with the Augustinian current of thought.