"Reading the French Enlightenment: System and Subversion" by Julie Candler Hayes
Cambridge Studies in French 60
Cambridge University Press | 2004 | ISBN: 052165128X | 258 pages | PDF | 1 Mb
Julie Candler Hayes surveys the past fifty years of philosophical reflection on the Enlightenment, and takes issue both with traditional liberal and with contemporary critical accounts, arguing instead for a new understanding of "systematic reason" as complex, paradoxical, and ultimately liberating. Through close analysis of philosophical, scientific, and literary texts, she emphasizes the urgency of maintaining a dialogue between past and present, Enlightenment and modernity.