Reason and Authority in the Eighteenth CenturyOriginally published in 1964, this book examines the influence of reason and authority upon English thought in the eighteenth century. The text relates these two concepts to movements in religious and political thought, beginning with Locke's views on faith and reason before going through various areas and finishing with the beginnings of Romanticism. The age of the Enlightenment is seen as constituted, on the one hand, by an attempt to relate all significant intellectual movements to reason and, on the other, an attempt to devise proper restraints on the authority of reason. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in philosophy, social and political thought, and eighteenth-century English history. |
Contents
THE AUTHORITY OF REASON CONFIRMED | 28 |
THE AUTHORITY OF REASON INDEPENDENT | 62 |
THE RETORT TO REASONLAW BERKELEY | 93 |
SCEPTICISM AND ITS CHALLENGE | 125 |
THE AUTHORITY OF A REVITALISED FAITH | 155 |
THE AUTHORITY OF THE STATE AND | 181 |
THE APPEAL TO THE AUTHORITY OF SCIENCE | 216 |
THE AUTHORITY OF TRADITION AND | 250 |
CONCLUSION | 276 |
| 285 | |
Notes | 298 |
| 334 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accepted Age of Reason appeal argument Arian Arminian atheism attack Atterbury authority believed Berkeley Bishop Bishop Gibson Burke Butler Christ Christianity Church of England civil claimed Clarke clergy Collins concerned consequence contemporaries controversy conviction convocation Conyers Middleton debate Defence Deism Deists Discourse dissenters divine doctrine ecclesiastical edition Edward Gibbon eighteenth century enquiry Erastianism Essay established ethics evidence existence experience faith freedom Gibbon God's Godwin Gospel happiness Hartley History Hoadly human Hume Ibid ideas insisted intellectual John Locke Latitudinarians Letters liberty Locke Locke's man's mind miracles moral Natural and Revealed natural religion Newton nonconformists outlook philosophical political position Priestley principles problems prophecy proved rational Reflections reform religious revealed religion revelation Samuel Clarke scepticism Scripture sense Sermons Sherlock society spirit superstition Sykes Test Acts theological theory things thought Tindal tion toleration true truth understanding views virtue Warburton Wesley Whiston