02 Enlightenment An Interpretation [Paperback]

The Enlightenment by Peter Gay (2 volumes: The Rise of Modern Paganism and The Science of Freedom) surely ranks among the most brilliant accounts of eighteenth-century philosophy ever written. It is a sweeping account of the intellectual history of the 18th century, form its origins right into the French and American Revolutions. It traces the struggle of the small clique of 'philosophes' -a dispersed group of intellectual giants such as Voltaire, Hume, Lessing and Beccaria- as they fight against corruption, superstition and ignorance, which has kept Europe slumbering since the demise of the Roman Empire. The book vividly illustrates the ideas of the 'philosophes' and how they wanted to bring their reform programs into practice, and thereby spread the ideals of liberty and the pursuit of knowledge. Peter Gay deftly describes the cultural background of the 'philosophes' and explains how they came to challenge the establishment in order to bringing about these much needed changes so as to give their ideals a chance to prevail. The book has an extensive and well-readable bibliography with many good suggestions. This account of the Enlightenment is among the best ever written in the twentieth century, along with Paul Hazard's European Thought in the 18th century and Ernst Cassirer's The Philosophy of the Enlightenment. I do recommend all to read both volumes of this book.

Before I read The Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Paganism and The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom by Peter Gay, I had no idea that one could study the history of intellectual thought, even though I had read and studied almost all of the authors he discusses in detail in these seminal books.

Gay argues that there was in fact an Enlightenment (an issue hotly debated during my college years). The essential elements -- convergent rationalism, critical skepticism and anticlericalism -- created modern Western thought. Gay writes brilliantly, with great clarity, and his analyses of ancient and modern thinkers provided me with a number of important insights that my teachers and I had missed when reading the originals. Gay's bibliography is particularly illuminating.

Gay discusses the Greek and Roman philosophers in his first volume, and argues that thinkers of the Enlightment agreed wholeheartedly with Gibbons:

"If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus."

At the same time, Gay is blunt in his judgments:

"History has been far from gentle with its hopes and predictions. The world has not turned out the way the philosophers wished, and half expected it would. Old fanaticisms have been more intractable, irrational forces more inventive than the philosophers were ready to conjecture.... Problems of race, of class of nationalism, or boredom and despair in the midst of plenty have emerged, almost in defiance of the philosopher's philosophy. We have known horrors, and may know horrors, that the men of the Enlightenment, did not see in their nightmares."

Gay does not, however, trace out the consequences of these philosophies but instead focuses on the study of the ideas themselves, and in particular the revolt of the philosophers against Chrisitanity and their return to classical (i.e. pagan) and secular thought.

Gay communicates the sense of excitement the men of the Enlightenment shared, a sense of adventure and daring. They were aware they were breaking with a thousand year old tradition with a great deal at stake.

I wished Gay had covered more ground in these two volumes; his modern Enlightment is limited to England, France and Germany in large measure, and ignores some intellectual leaders even in those countries like Gustavus of Sweden and Joseph of the Holy Roman Empire. In particular I would have liked to read his analysis of how the Enlightenment played out in the American colonies.

Nevertheless, this a splendid history, beautifully written, a truly exciting intellectual journey.

2009 Addendum

Peter Gay has been an important intellectual historian during my adult reading life. His "Enlightenment" reinforced and greatly enhanced my two years in college participating in the Integrated Liberal Studies program.

In the 1980s I was fascinated by Freud: A Life for Our Time, which was based primarily on original sources.

In the 1990s I browsed with great pleasure (but never studied seriously his five-volume "The Bourgeois Experience: Victoria to Freud."

I found his memoir, My German Question: Growing Up in Nazi Berlin, compelling and enlightening, and browsed with pleasure through Modernism: The Lure of Heresy, a survey of modernism in prose and poetry, music and dance, architecture and design, drama and the movies.

I feel very lucky to have had access to his works over these many years.

Robert C. Ross 1970 2009

Note: One of twelve NY Times "Editors' Choice" books for 1969; see first Comment.

I picked up a copy of Peter Gay's Enlightenment as a discard from our public library. It was a terrific book, but I noticed it was "Volume 1." So I had to go to Amazon to find volume 2 (They are not labeled as volume 1 or 2, they have different subtitles.) It, too was fine, better than fine. This is history writing at its best - great accomplishment for Peter Gay.

Don

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