Human Nature, Cultural Diversity, and the French Enlightenment

by Henry Vyverberg

Overview

In this work, Henry Vyverberg traces the evolution and consequences of a crucial idea in French Enlightenment thought--the idea of human nature. Human nature was commonly seen as a broadly universal, unchanging entity, though perhaps modifiable by geographical, social, and historical factors. Enlightenment empiricism suggested a degree of cultural diversity that has often been underestimated in studies of the age. Evidence here is drawn from Diderot's celebrated Encyclopedia and from a vast range of writing by such Enlightenment notables as Voltaire, Rousseau, and d'Holbach. Vyverberg explains not only the age's undoubted fascination with uniformity in human nature, but also its acknowledgment of significant limitations on that uniformity. He shows that although the Enlightenment's historical sense was often blinkered by its notions of a uniform human nature, there were also cracks in this concept that developed during the Enlightenment itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195345223
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/17/1989
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	392 KB

Table of Contents

	Introduction	3
1	From Nature to Human Nature	20
	Nature as Fact or Norm	20
	Natural Law and the Laws of Nature	24
	Human Nature	28
2	The Uniformity of Human Nature	34
	The Question	34
	Reason and Passion	36
	Instinctual Ethics and Religion	40
	Uniformity Affirmed	46
3	The Diversity of Human Beings	53
	The Role of Experience	53
	Experiential Religion and Ethics	55
	Uniformity Challenged	58
4	Physical and Moral Influences on National Character	64
	Voyages and Travel	64
	Climate	66
	Institutions and Individuals	71
	National Character	76
5	Understanding Cultural Diversity	88
	The Question	88
	Provisional Generalizations	90
6	A Cultural Miscellany	98
	Russians and Others	98
	Jews	103
	Blacks and Native Americans	107
7	The Mildly Exotic East	116
	The Islamic World	116
	India	119
	China and the Chinese Sage	121
	The Waning of the Chinese Vogue	126
8	Historical Diversity	136
	The Place of History	136
	Voltaire and History	139
	History in the Encyclopedia	146
9	The Case of Ancient Greece	155
	Greece in the Enlightenment	155
	Greece in the Encyclopedia	161
10	The Case of the Middle Ages	174
	An Enlightenment Consensus?	174
	The Middle Ages in the Encyclopedia	185
	Conclusion	194
	Bibliography	207
	Index	217

Editorial Reviews

"The scholarship...is firm....Rewarding. To anyone who wishes to become acquainted with the multiplicity of Enlightenment thinking, it provides an erudite introduction."—American Historical Review

"Represents a healthy return to the careful examination of the history of ideas. Vyverberg overturns popular misconceptions with solid proof and great enthusiasm for the Enlightenment. Recommended to students at all levels."—CHOICE

From the Publisher