Letters and lives online...
Electronic Enlightenment
Letters and lives online...
From Our Blog
Voltaire, the French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher, wrote over 20,000 letters over his lifetime. One can read through his letters to learn more about his views on democracy and religion, as well as the soul and afterlife. The following excerpts from his letters show how his thoughts and ideas about death and the soul evolved over time.
Posted on May 29, 2018
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In the 21st century, dance is a part of life'it can be an occupation, a part of traditional weddings, a hobby, and a pastime, among other things. However, it is regarded quite differently than it was in the time of the Enlightenment, when it was a much more important part of regular social life, especially for the wealthier classes. In this time, young adults went to dance instructors to make sure they were properly trained for the social activities they would soon be a part of. Read on for excerpts of correspondence from Electronic Enlightenment highlighting just how important dancing was to everyday life in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Posted on April 29, 2018
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Originally published anonymously, Jonathan Swift sent the manuscript for the satirical masterpiece Gulliver's Travels to his publisher under a pseudonym and handled any correspondence and corrections through friends. As such, even though close friends such as Alexander Pope knew about the publication, Swift still kept up the ruse of feigning ignorance about the book in his correspondence with them.
Posted on November 30, 2017
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The end of summer and beginning of autumn mean that children and young adults worldwide are heading back to school. While much has changed since the time of the seventeenth century ' which children were allowed to go to school and which weren't, and what they were taught there, for example ' one thing that has not changed is the worry a parent feels about their child getting the best education they can.
Posted on September 3, 2017
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Who exactly was David Hume? He was a Scottish historian and philosopher (best known today for his radical empiricism), who prided himself on his reputation as a man of the utmost moral character.
Posted on May 18, 2017
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Since time immemorial, humans have kept animals for companions. Pets are known to provide physical and emotional benefits, not only in terms of companionship, but also in terms of outdoor adventure, exercise, and socializing with other pet owners. As Sigmund Feud once said, "Time spent with cats is never wasted." Dogs and cats have been particular favourites throughout the ages, with cats commonly thought to have been domesticated in ancient Egypt, and dogs from the time of the hunter-gatherers.
Posted on April 22, 2017
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During the Enlightenment era, the term "man of letters" (deriving from the French term belletrist) was used to distinguish true scholars'independent thinkers who relished debate, conversation and learning. In an age when literacy was a distinct form of cultural capital, it served to identify the literati, often the French members of the "Republic of Letters," who met in "salons" designed for the elevation, education, and cultural sophistication of the participants.
Posted on March 14, 2017
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Libraries by their very nature are keepers and extollers of the written word. They contain books, letters, and manuscripts, signifying unending possibilities and limitless stores of knowledge waiting to be explored. But aside from the texts and stories kept within libraries' walls, they also have a long and fascinating story in their own right.
Posted on February 24, 2017
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Voltaire had numerous passionate affairs, and engaged in an enormous amount of private correspondence with his lovers, much of which has been kept for posterity. Providing a fascinating insight into Voltaire's inner-most emotions, his letters give a glimpse of his friendships, sorrows, joys, and passionate desires'¦
Posted on November 21, 2016
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Blindness is a recurrent image in Enlightenment rhetoric. It is used in a political context to indicate a lack of awareness, seen in a letter from Edmund Burke to the chevalier de La Bintinnaye, in poetic rhetoric, with the stories of the blind poets Milton, Homer, and Ossian circulating among the intelligentsia of the time, or simply as a physical irritation, when writers with long lives and extensive correspondences frequently complained of their eyesight deteriorating.
Posted on July 16, 2016
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The idea of social networks is not new, nor is their range of importance: from shared intimacy, to commercial nicety, to revolutionary provocation. At no time do we see more of their range and variety and importance than in the letters of Colonial and Revolutionary America. Letters connected families and friends, facilitated commerce and legal disputes, and turned all of these into a porridge of political transformation. Not only can we read history as part of everyday life, we can see it expressed in language of considerable beauty, grace and virtue.
Posted on July 28, 2015
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By Daniel Parker However embarrassingly you may have been hoodwinked on April Fool's Day in the past, it is incredibly unlikely that you'll have ever been swindled by French confidence trickster Georges Pierre des Clozets, who represented a completely fictional secret Alchemy society called 'The Asterism'. That dubious honour fell to Robert Boyle, philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor, who was duped in the latter part of the 17th century.
Posted on April 1, 2014
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The 17th century saw great, heroic voyages of discovery ' voyages into the unknown, voyages potentially into the abyss. The 18th century saw a slow transformation in travel ' if for no other reason than the incremental improvement and progress in the methods of travel.
Posted on January 15, 2014
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By Daniel Parker Jeremy Bentham wanted to become a Carlisle Peace Commissioner but his application was wilfully ignored by Governor Johnstone. The Carlisle Peace Commissioners set out to the United States in 1778, three years into the American Revolutionary War, to negotiate a peace treaty.
Posted on August 20, 2013
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By Dr. Robert V. McNamee In July, Electronic Enlightenment (EE) updated with materials taken from the Virginia Historical Society and the correspondence of Adam Ferguson, amongst others. These apparently disparate historical correspondences (and others already published in EE) are brought together within this unique digital framework so that students, scholars and the public can read, in this instance, 'across the Atlantic'.
Posted on August 19, 2013
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By Dr. Robert V. McNamee Spring 2013 marks two significant anniversaries for Alexander Pope, perhaps the most representative and alien English poet of the 18th century. Pope is memorialized both for the 325th anniversary of his birth, on 21 May 1688, and for the 300th anniversary of two significant literary acts: one a publication, the other a proposal to publish.
Posted on May 21, 2013
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