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The Legacy of the Enlightenment
Ambivalences of Modernity
Series: The Life of Ideas
Brief Description
Going against the grain, this refreshing book argues for a non-ideological portrait of the Enlightenment as having been, above all else, a self-critical enterprise. The Enlightenment has come under substantial attack over the past several years, with some going so far as to recommend leaving its...
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The Legacy of the Enlightenment
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Description
Going against the grain, this refreshing book argues for a non-ideological portrait of the Enlightenment as having been, above all else, a self-critical enterprise.
The Enlightenment has come under substantial attack over the past several years, with some going so far as to recommend leaving its thinkers—and their Eurocentric prejudices—behind. On the other hand, the most orthodox defenders of the Enlightenment insist that its values are not just foundational but indispensable and that leaving them behind means opening the door to nihilism and relativism. For Antoine Lilti, one of the leading scholars of the French Enlightenment, both sides are wrong.
In this remarkable series of essays, Lilti emphasizes a non-dogmatic, non-ideological view of the Enlightenment—one that sees its legacy as a critical, subversive attitude that can and should serve as its own best critic. Along the way, he engages with everyone from Rousseau and Kant to Foucault and Habermas, as well as prominent contemporary scholars such as Jonathan Israel. The result is a new reading of the Enlightenment that breathes life into old debates and offers an alternative way to engage with canonical thinkers and traditions that is both honest about the past and useful for the future.
Series: The Life of Ideas
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The Legacy of the Enlightenment
Going against the grain, this refreshing book argues for a non-ideological portrait of the Enlightenment as having been, above all else, a self-critical enterprise. The Enlightenment has come under substantial attack over the past several years, with some going so far as to recommend leaving its thinkers—and their Eurocentric prejudices—behind. On the other hand, the most orthodox defenders of the...Hardback$7599Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
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Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780226820613
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 05 December 2025
Country: United States
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Contributors:
- Translated by C. Jon Delogu
Audience: Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 152.0mm
Height: 229.0mm
Weight: 454g
Pages: 320
About the Author
Antoine Lilti is professor at the Collège de France, where he holds the chair in the History of the Enlightenment, 18th to 21st century. He is the author of several books, including, most recently, The Invention of Celebrity.
C. Jon Delogu is professor in the English Department at Université Jean Moulin-Lyon 3. He has translated over a dozen books, fiction and nonfiction, and is the author of three of his own on Emerson, Tocqueville, and the temptations fascism poses during vulnerable times.
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