The Cambridge History of French Thought

History of how, over many centuries, French thinkers have revolutionized European thought about knowledge, religion, politics, and society.

Michael Moriarty (Edited by), Jeremy Jennings (Edited by)

9781107163676, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 May 2019

598 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 3.7 cm, 0.97 kg

'The Cambridge History of French Thought is much more than an overview of philosophy during the period since the Middle Ages … this is a useful work that would make a valuable addition to any serious university library.' R. W. Lemmons, Choice

French thinkers have revolutionized European thought about knowledge, religion, politics, and society. Delivering a comprehensive history of thought in France from the Middle Ages to the present, this book follows themes and developments of thought across the centuries. It provides readers with studies of both systematic thinkers and those who operate less systematically, through essays or fragments, and places them all in their many contexts. Informed by up-to-date research, these accessible chapters are written by prominent experts in their fields who investigate key concepts in non-technical language. Chapters feature treatments of specific thinkers as individuals including Voltaire, Rousseau, Descartes and Derrida, but also more general movements and schools of thought from humanism to liberalism, via the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Marxism, and feminism. Furthermore, the influence of gender, race, empire and slavery are investigated to offer a broad and fulfilling account of French thought throughout the ages.

Introduction Michael Moriarty
Part I. The Middle Ages to 1789: 1. Medieval French thought David Luscombe
2. Humanist culture in Renaissance France Ingrid De Smet
3. Reformers and dissidents Neil Kenny
4. Rabelais John O'Brien
5. Moral theories: Aristotelianism and Neostoicism Ullrich Langer
6. Pyrrhonism John O'Brien
7. Ramus Raphaële Garrod
8. Montaigne John O'Brien
9. Demonology Timothy Chesters
10. Political and legal thought Sophie E. B. Nichols
11. Linguistic and literary thought: mid-sixteenth to mid-seventeenth centuries John D. Lyons
12. French scholastics in the seventeenth century Roger Ariew
13. Sceptics and freethinkers Isabelle Moreau
14. Descartes Gary Hatfield
15. Augustinianism Michael Moriarty
16. Spirituality Richard Parish
17. Pascal Emma Gilby
18. Cartesianism Steven Nadler
19. Bayle Ruth Whelan
20. Ethical, political, and social thought Michael Moriarty
21. Aesthetics: ancients and moderns Richard Scholar
22. The querelle des femmes Rebecca Wilkin
23. The Enlightenment Jenny Mander
24. Voltaire John Leigh
25. Diderot Marian Hobson
26. Rousseau Michael Moriarty
27. Philosophy and religion: deism, atheism, materialism Caroline Warman
28. Enlightenment political and social thought A. M. R. De Dijn
29. The continent of history David McCallam
30. Enlightenment aesthetic thought Kate E. Tunstall
31. The Enlightenment and gender Judith Still
32. Colonialism and slavery Jenny Mander
Part II. From 1789 to the Present Day: 33. French thought on the eve of the Revolution and after Jeremy Jennings
34. Political thought in the nineteenth century Jeremy Jennings
35. The Paris School of liberal political economy David Hart
36. Romanticism Alison Finch
37. Victor Cousin and eclecticism Benjamin Bacle
38. Nineteenth-century religious thought Robert Priest
39. Auguste Comte and positivism Mary Pickering
40. Race and empire in ninteenth-century France Emmanuelle Saada
41. Philosophy: epistemological debates and Bergson Daniela S. Barberis
42. Nation and nationalism Michael Sutton
43. Twentieth-century French Catholic thought Michael Sutton
44. Writing modern French history Philip Whalen
45. Sartre and the art of living with paradox Thomas R. Flynn
46. Marxism versus humanism Knox Peden
47. French feminist thought in the twentieth century Diana Holmes
48. Anticolonialism Emile Chabal
49. The new liberalism Daniel J. Mahoney
50. Michel Foucault Michael C. Behrent
51. Jacques Derrida and deconstruction Paul Rekret
52. Sociology Daniela S. Barberis
53. Literary theory Patrick French
Conclusion: the end of French thought? Jeremy Jennings.

Subject Areas: History of Western philosophy [HPC], Literary reference works [DSR], Literature: history & criticism [DS]