Providence Lost

by Genevieve Lloyd

To the ancient Greeks, providence was the inherent purpose and rational structure of the world. In Christian thought, it became a benign will “providing” for human well-being. And in our own ever more secular times―is providence lost? Perhaps, but as Genevieve Lloyd makes clear in this illuminating work, providence still exerts a powerful influence on our thought and in our lives; and understanding how can help us clarify the functioning―or, increasingly, disfunctioning―of concepts of freedom and autonomy that define our modernity. Such an understanding is precisely the goal of this book, which traces a succession of transformations in the concept of providence through the history of Western philosophy.

Beginning with early versions of providence in ancient Greek thought, Lloyd follows the concept through its convergence with Christian ideas, to its role in seventeenth-century philosophical accommodations of freedom and necessity. Finally, she shows how providence was subsumed into the eighteenth-century ideas of progress that eventually rendered it philosophically superfluous. Incorporating rich discussions of thinkers from Euripides to Augustine, Descartes and Spinoza to Kant and Hegel, her lucid and elegantly written work clearly and forcefully brings the history of ideas to bear on our present confusion over notions of autonomy, risk, and responsibility. Exploring the interplay among philosophy, religion, and literature, and among intellect, imagination, and emotion in philosophical thought, this book allows intellectual historians and general readers alike to grasp what it actually means that providence can be lost but not escaped.

Genres: Philosophy

384 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2008

About the author

Genevieve Lloyd (born at Cootamundra, New South Wales, 16 October 1941) is an Australian philosopher and feminist. She studied philosophy at the University of Sydney in the early 1960s and then at Somerville College, Oxford. Her D.Phil, awarded in 1973, was on 'Time and Tense'. From 1967 until 1987 she lectured at the Australian National University, during which period she developed her most influential ideas and wrote The Man of Reason, which was published in 1984. In 1987 she was appointed to the chair of philosophy at the University of New South Wales, being the first female professor of philosophy appointed in Australia.[1] On retirement, she was appointed Professor Emeritus.
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Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was hit-and-miss... some chapters (the Stoics, Kant, Leibniz) were coherent and focused, others (Descartes) felt shoehorned in, and only tangentially related to her argument and narrative (which was hard to discern, at times). I was frustrated that she skated over how free will and necessity could be harmoniously conjoined; one way of thinking about free will is in an absolute sense, either it's free or it isn't (can will be a little bit free? If it's constrained at all, then it's not free, right?). I think she could have talked a bit more (well, a lot more) about how free is free.

Overall, though, I'm glad I read the book, and I did get something out of it: a renewed appreciation for the Stoics, a new appreciation for the Epicureans, and some interesting observations on dilemmas in our modern way of thinking about will and necessity. And the chapter on Descartes, though relatively weak on providence and Descartes, was a very good essay on gender and philosophy.

[Mitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wonderful appraisal or ancient and modern dilemmas in knowledge and art. So far I highly agree with her. I appreciate her willingness to attack free will without resorting to anti-philosophical philistinism or scientism.