This book analyses the use of the crucial concept of 'taste' in the works of five major seventeenth-century French authors, Méré, Saint Evremond, La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyère and Boileau. It combines close readings of important texts with a thoroughgoing political analysis of seventeenth-century French society in terms of class and gender. Dr Moriarty shows that far from being timeless and universal, the term 'taste' is culture-specific, shifting according to the needs of a writer and his social group. The notion of (...) 'taste' not only helped to shape a new dominant culture, but also registered the conflicts within that culture between a view of taste that presupposted the values of 'polite society' as an exclusive (though not necessarily aristocratic) group, and a view that stressed the value of the classical-humanist tradition as a source of standards ratified by a broader public. this study sheds light not only on the central concept, but also on the individual authors discussed and on the norms of French classical literature in general. (shrink)

Two linked arguments are offered in this paper. The first half argues that I.B. Cohen's notion of the "Newtonian Revolution" in mechanics needs to be revised in light of the recent historical work of Michel Blay, Henk Bos, and Niccolò Guicciardini. It further suggests a new way of thinking about the history of French mathematical mechanics in the decades around 1700 that follows as a consequence of these historical revisions. The second half of the paper builds upon these revisions by (...) offering a cultural explanation for the particularly French approach to mechanics that was developed after 1690. Specifically, it suggests that the broad circulation and influence of the philosophy of Nicolas Malebranche in France between 1680 and 1715 exemplifies the ways that French culture contributed to the development of its particular approach to mechanics. (shrink)

This essay argues that Malebranche originated the model of sensitive taste in French thought, several decades before Du Bos. It examines the highly gendered, negative physiological model of taste and of the female mind which Malebranche developed within the Cartesian framework and as a witness to Parisian salon society in which women’s taste had great cultural influence, and strongly questions the common assumption that Cartesian substance dualism necessarily contained feminist potential. The essay argues for Malebranche’s great influence in this regard, (...) connecting him to later Enlightenment critics of women’s taste such as Rousseau, and to Vitalist physicians like Le Camus. -/- All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of scholarly citation, none of this work may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. For information address the University of Pennsylvania Press, 3905 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112. (shrink)

The little-known writings that Erica Harth examines here reveal a remarkable chapter in the history of Western thought. Drawing upon current theoretical work in gender studies, cultural history, and literary criticism, Harth looks at how women in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France attempted to overcome gender barriers and participated in the shaping of rational discourse.

The Description for this book, Le Paradis des Femmes: Women, Salons, and Social Stratification in Seventeenth-Century France, will be forthcoming.

Rene Bray, dans la conclusion de son livre, reste a juste titre celebre, sur la formation de la doctrine classique, distingue deux etapes dans l'histoire du Classicisme. La premiere est celle ou l'on dote la litterature classique d'une doctrine. L'autre est celle ou se forme et s'epanouit le gout classique : c'est " l'oeuvre finale, celle qui complete l'edifice ". La doctrine classique est a present bien connue. Maints ouvrages ou articles l'ont analysee dans son ensemble ou dans le detail. (...) Le gout classique l'est beaucoup moins. Des aspects particuliers en ont ete explores dans des travaux souvent d'un grand merite. Mais aucune definition d'ensemble n'en a ete proposee. Ce serait, il est vrai, une tache immence que de vouloir saisir toute la richesse et toute la complexite qu'il presente a la fois sous ses aspects theoriques et dans les oeuvres qu'il inspire. Pierre d'attente d'une telle synthese, cette " recherche " se propose, plus modestement, apres avoir tente en guise de preliminaires de preciser l'idee que les classiques se faisaient du gout, d'etudier, a partir des theories, quelques-unes des tendances du gout classique qui se revelent, a l'examen, dominantes. En premier lieu une exigence d'ordre structurel et qualitatif, sans lequel on ne croyait pas qu'il put y avoir de beaute. Puis l'importance attachee a la grace, qualite inseparable du naturel, de la negligence etudiee. Enfin, allant de pair avec un fort attrait pour le pathetique, l'ideal d'une grandeur alliee a la simplicite de l'expression dont le Classicisme a trouve l'inspiration chez les Anciens, en particulier dans le traite Du Sublime du Pseudo-Longin. (shrink)

A multi-faceted study of intellectual transformation in early modern Europe as seen through the eyes of a leading French scholar and cleric, Pierre-Daniel Huet (1630-1721).

Passion and Action is an exploration of the role of the passions in seventeenth-century thought. Susan James offers fresh readings of a broad range of thinkers, including such canonical figures as Hobbes, Descartes, Malebranche, Spinoza, Pascal, and Locke, and shows that a full understanding of their philosophies must take account of their interpretations of our affective life. This ground-breaking study throws new light upon the shaping of our ideas about the mind, knowledge, and action, and provides a historical context for (...) burgeoning current debates about the emotions. (shrink)

Book synopsis: Passion and Action explores the place of the emotions in seventeenth-century understandings of the body and mind, and the role they were held to play in reasoning and action. Interest in the passions pervaded all areas of philosophical enquiry, and was central to the theories of many major figures, including Hobbes, Descartes, Malebranche, Spinoza, Pascal, and Locke. Yet little attention has been paid to this topic in studies of early modern thought. Susan James surveys the inheritance of ancient (...) and medieval doctrines about the passions, showing how these were incorporated into new philosophical theories in the course of the seventeenth century. She examines the relation of the emotions to will, knowledge, understanding, desire, and power, offering fresh analyses and interpretations of a broad range of texts by little-known writers as well as canonical figures, and establishing that a full understanding of these authors must take account of their discussions of our affective life. Passion and Action also addresses current debates, particularly those within feminist philosophy, about the embodied character of thinking and the relation between emotion and knowledge. This ground-breaking study throws new light upon the shaping of our ideas about the mind, and provides a historical context for burgeoning contemporary investigations of the emotions. (shrink)