What do you think?
Rate this book
Το κόμμα της ανθρωπότητας: Θέσεις για τον Γαλλικό Διαφωτισμό
"Στόχος πολεμικής σε όλη του την πορεία, ο Διαφωτισμός κατηγορήθηκε για ιδέες που δεν ήταν δικές του και για ιστορικές εξελίξεις που ούτε επιδίωξε ούτε προκάλεσε. Στο πέρασμα των χρόνων απέκτησε μια φήμη που τώρα πια καλύπτει το πρόσωπό του σαν άκαμπτη μάσκα. Η κυρίαρχη εικόνα του Διαφωτισμού σήμερα δεν αποτυπώνει το έργο των ειδικών: Δεν μπορώ να βρω άλλο πεδίο ιστορικής μελέτης, όπου το χάσμα μεταξύ λογιοσύνης και κοινού να ναι τόσο βαθύ και τόσο μοιραίο όσο και στον Διαφωτισμό. Και λέγοντας "κοινό" εννοώ τους καταναλωτές εγχειριδίων και, φοβάμαι, συχνά και τους παραγωγούς τους επίσης." Σ' αυτό το προκλητικό βιβλίο ο Peter Gay διαλύει παλιούς μύθους και αποσαφηνίζει τον ιστορικό ρόλο, τις διαχρονικές αξίες και το πνεύμα του Διαφωτισμού. Αντιτάσσεται στον μεταμοντέρνο λόγο που θεωρεί τον Διαφωτισμό πρόδρομο των ολοκληρωτισμών του 20ου αιώνα, και τονίζει ότι ο ορθολισμός των ανθρώπων του Διαφωτισμού δεν σημαίνει την αφελή εμπιστοσύνη στην παντοδυναμία του ορθού λόγου, αλλά την πίστη στο κριτικό πνεύμα, που θέτει όλες τις απόψεις υπό αίρεση -ακόμη και τις δικές τους.
326 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
7 people are currently reading
96 people want to read
About the author
Peter Gay
150 books153 followersPeter Joachim Gay was a German-American historian, educator, and author. He was a Sterling Professor of History at Yale University and former director of the New York Public Library's Center for Scholars and Writers (1997–2003). He received the American Historical Association's (AHA) Award for Scholarly Distinction in 2004. He authored over 25 books, including The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, a two-volume award winner; Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider (1968); and the widely translated Freud: A Life for Our Time (1988).
Gay was born in Berlin in 1923, left Germany in 1939 and emigrated, via Cuba, to the United States in 1941. From 1948 to 1955 he was a political science professor at Columbia University, and then a history professor from 1955 to 1969. He left Columbia in 1969 to join Yale University's History Department as Professor of Comparative and Intellectual European History and was named Sterling Professor of History in 1984.
Gay was the interim editor of The American Scholar after the death of Hiram Haydn in 1973 and served on that magazine's editorial board for many years. Sander L. Gilman, a literary historian at Emory University, called Gay "one of the major American historians of European thought, period".
Gay was born in Berlin in 1923, left Germany in 1939 and emigrated, via Cuba, to the United States in 1941. From 1948 to 1955 he was a political science professor at Columbia University, and then a history professor from 1955 to 1969. He left Columbia in 1969 to join Yale University's History Department as Professor of Comparative and Intellectual European History and was named Sterling Professor of History in 1984.
Gay was the interim editor of The American Scholar after the death of Hiram Haydn in 1973 and served on that magazine's editorial board for many years. Sander L. Gilman, a literary historian at Emory University, called Gay "one of the major American historians of European thought, period".
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 27, 2023
Another good one
Peter Gay was a scholar of exceptional wisdom and compassion. For me he presents the Enlightenment in a reasonable and proper perspective. A time of questioning and looking at life's mysteries from as many different angles as possible. I am grateful to have discovered his writing.
Peter Gay was a scholar of exceptional wisdom and compassion. For me he presents the Enlightenment in a reasonable and proper perspective. A time of questioning and looking at life's mysteries from as many different angles as possible. I am grateful to have discovered his writing.
July 12, 2013
I found this a fairly dull selection of essays. The book is broken up into three sections: the first is comprised of essays about Voltaire, the second, entitled “Toward Synthesis” is Gay’s attempt to argue against a sort of nominalism in intellectual history, the third contains essays of Gay “contra” (Carl Becker’s Heavenly City, biographers and historians of Rousseau and other writers’ versions of the Enlightenment). I read and liked Becker’s book but I don’t have enough of a background (or a memory of the book) to agree or disagree with Gay’s argument against it. I felt the strongest essay in the book was the first one in the middle section, “The Unity of the French Enlightenment.”
March 16, 2010
Easy prose. More forthcoming on this book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews