The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century

Edited by James A. Harris

Oxford Handbooks

Full coverage of every aspect of a key period in the history of western thought
All essays specially written for this collection
Illuminates the work of lesser-known writers alongside established thinkers
Truly interdisciplinary: will be of interest to philosophers, historians, political theorists, and literary critics

The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century

Edited by James A. Harris

Description

Philosophy in eighteenth-century Britain was diverse, vibrant, and sophisticated. This was the age of Hume and Berkeley and Reid, of Hutcheson and Kames and Smith, of Ferguson and Burke and Wollstonecraft. Important and influential works were published in every area of philosophy, from the theory of vision to theories of political resistance, from the philosophy of language to accounts of ways of governing the passions. The philosophers of eighteenth-century Britain were enormously influential, in France, in Italy, in Germany, and in America. Their ideas and arguments remain a powerful presence in philosophy three centuries later.
This Oxford Handbook is the first book ever to provide comprehensive coverage of the full range of philosophical writing in Britain in the eighteenth century. It provides accounts of the writings of all the major figures, but also puts those figures in the context provided by a host of writers less well known today. The book has five principal sections: 'Logic and Metaphysics', 'The Passions', 'Morals', 'Criticism', and 'Politics'. Each section comprises four chapters, providing detailed coverage of all of the important aspects of its subject matter. There is also an introductory section, with chapters on the general character of philosophizing in eighteenth-century Britain, and a concluding section on the important question of the relation at this time between philosophy and religion.
The authors of the chapters are experts in their fields. They include philosophers, historians, political theorists, and literary critics, and they teach in colleges and universities in Britain, in Europe, and in North America.

The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century

Edited by James A. Harris

Oxford Handbooks

Introduction, James A. Harris
PART 1: THE LANGUAGES OF PHILOSOPHY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN
1. Locke and his legacy, TIMOTHY STANTON
2. Newton and Newtonianism in eighteenth-century British thought, ERIC SCHLIESSER
3. The idea of a science of human nature, JACQUELINE TAYLOR
4. Rhetoric and eloquence: the language of persuasion, PADDY BULLARD
PART 2: LOGIC AND METAPHYSICS
5. Perception and the Language of Nature, REBECCA COPENHAVER
6. Language and thought, LAURENT JAFFRO
7. The understanding, JOHN P. WRIGHT
8. Mind and matter, AARON GARRETT
PART 3: THE PASSIONS
9. Passions, affections, sentiments: taxonomy and terminology, AMY SCHMITTER
10. Reason and the passions, TERENCE CUNEO
11. Liberty and necessity, SEAN GREENBERG
12. The government of the passions, JAMES A. HARRIS
PART 4: MORALS
13. Self-interest and sociability, CHRISTIAN MAURER
14. Moral judgment, P. J. E. KAIL
15. The nature of virtue, Dario Perinetti
16. Practical ethics, COLIN HEYDT
PART 5: CRITICISM
17. The pleasures of the imagination and the objects of taste, PAUL GUYER
18. The faculty of taste, TIMOTHY M. COSTELLOE
19. The pleasures of tragedy, EVA DADLEZ
20. Genius and the creative imagination, PETER KIVY
PART 6: POLITICS
21. The origin of civil government, DARIO CASTIGLIONE
22. Forms of government, CRAIG SMITH
23. Reform and revolution, NEIL McARTHUR
24. Luxury, commerce, and the rise of political economy, RICHARD WHATMORE
PART 7: PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
25. Causation, cosmology, and the limits of philosophy: the early eighteenth-century British debate, PAUL RUSSELL
26. Philosophy, revealed religion, and 'The Enlightenment', ALEXANDER BROADIE
27. Religion and morality, THOMAS AHNERT

The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century

Edited by James A. Harris

Oxford Handbooks

Author Information

James A. Harris is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. He is the author of Of Liberty and Necessity: The Free Will Debate in Eighteenth-Century British Philosophy (OUP, 2005), and of articles on Hume, Hutcheson, Reid, Beattie, Priestley, and a number of themes in eighteenth-century British thought. He has edited texts by Reid, Beattie, Kames, and Abraham Tucker. He is writing an intellectual biography of Hume for Cambridge University Press, and also the eighteenth-century British philosophy volume of the new Oxford History of Philosophy.

Contributors:

Thomas Anhert, University of Edinburgh
Alexander Broadie, University of Glasgow
Paddy Bullard, University of Kent
Dario Castiglione, University of Exeter
ebecca Copenhaver, Lewis and Clark College
Timothy M. Costelloe, College of William and Mary
Terence Cuneo, University of Vermont
Eva Dadlez, Central Oklahoma
Aaron Garrett, Boston University
Sean Greenberg, University of California at Irvine
Paul Guyer, Brown University
James A. Harris, University of St Andrews
Colin Heydt, University of South Florida
Laurent Jaffro, Université Paris 1 - Panthéon Sorbonne
P. J. E. Kail, University of Oxford
Peter Kivy, Rutgers University
Christian Maurer, Université de Fribourg
Neil McArthur, University of Manitoba
Dario Perinetti, Université de Québec à Montréal
Paul Russell, University of British Columbia
Jacqueline Taylor, University of San Francisco
Craig Smith, University of St Andrews
Timothy Stanton, University of York
Eric Schliesser, Universiteit Gent
Amy Schmitter, University of Alberta
Richard Whatmore, University of Sussex
John P. Wright, University of Central Michigan

The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century

Edited by James A. Harris

Oxford Handbooks

Reviews and Awards

"[T]his work seems intended for people...who want an introduction to the key philosophical problems in the age of the British Enlightenment. It is like a core drilling into the current status of work on some of the most important writers of that era, the fruit of years of research in its historical context." --Journal of Scottish Philosophy