Flesh in the Age of Reason: The Modern Foundations of Body and Soul

by Roy Porter

"A heroic feat of scholarship."― New York Times Book Review In this "readable and humane book" ( Los Angeles Times Book Review ), the late historian Roy Porter traces the course of man's philosophical journey from the superstitious, spiritually obsessed Dark Ages to our modern perspective, based on reason and grounded in the body. He demonstrates how the explosion of rational thought and scientific innovation during the Enlightenment began to change our understanding of the flesh and its relation to the soul. No longer simply a "mortal coil," the body eventually became the location, and source, of our conscious selves. Porter examines this paradigm shift through the eyes of the great thinkers of history, from Descartes to Voltaire to Lord Byron, summarizing and explicating their beliefs "in a prose that leaps resplendently from the page" ( Harper's ).

Genres: History, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Science, Psychology, History Of Science, 21st Century

594 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Roy's books cover several fields: the history of geology, London, 18th-Century British ideas and society, medicine, madness, quackery, patients and practitioners, literature and art, on which subjects (and others) he published over 200 books are articles.

List of works can be found @ wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Porter )

Reviews

[saizine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely examination of the philosophy of the mind, the self, and the body. Not something I'd recommend to an entirely casual reader, for the tone is rather scholarly and geared more to someone with an interest in the subject, but for anyone who enjoys Roy Porter's work and Enlightenment philosophy (though a background in the era is certainly not required), then this book is excellent. I particularly enjoyed "Edward Gibbon: Fame and Mortality", "Sexing the Self", "Unreason", "Psychologizing the Self", "Dependent Bodies", "William Blake: The Body Mystical" and "Byron: Sexy Satire."

[Ereck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contrary to the way this book is presented by the publisher and framed by Porter, it is a literary study, using literary texts (broadly defined to include Locke & Shaftesbury) almost exclusively as evidence. I adore literary scholarship, but here I can't shake the discrepancy between what's promised and what's delivered. The book, although a useful synthetic study, is for me ultimately a disappointment.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent review of key thinkers in the Eighteenth Century regarding bodies, souls and the relationship between them. In addition to the usual suspects (Hume, Kant, etc.), he also has chapters on literary figures (Samuel Johnson, Byron, Edward Gibbon and others) and subtopics like illness, madness, death and sex. Not an easy read but not an obscure one either. He does an excellent job at the beginning of the book in giving the philosophical background to the debates. He also has a very good, 75 page (!) bibliography for further reading.

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Covers the intellectual history of mind/soul/body in philosophy, religion, science, and literature.

Favorite quotation (from Peacock):
There are two reasons for drinking: one is, when you are thirsty, to cure it; the other, when you are not thirsty, to prevent it.... Wine is the elixir of life. "The soul," says St. Augustine, "cannot live in drought." What is death? Dust and ashes. There is nothing so dry. What is life? Spirit. What is Spirit? Wine.

[Sunny · Rating 4 out of 5]

extremely well researched and well written book about, as the title suggests, the mind and the body and perhaps the link between the 2. gives some very interesting opinions from well known authors like locke, swift and shaftesbury etc etc. The book focusses on the 18th century period which for many represented the beginnings of a move away from the church towards logic and facts. very interesting read with lots to take in. recommended for someone with a thirst for knowledge.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the book Porter was born to write. There are many books purporting to tell the 'history of the modern self'. This is surely one of the best of them. Porter was a historian of medicine, with a passion for literature and philosophy, and a stylish pen. His approach to the self is dazzling, because he takes so many different perspectives. Sometimes he considers a particular person, the life they lived, the idea of self that they governed their thoughts and actions by—e.g. Samuel Johnson. Sometimes he considers a particular book—e.g. Tristram Shandy or A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Sometimes he picks up on a debate in philosophy or medicine, tracking ideas through a host of obscure pamphlets and essays and medical tracts—e.g. his chapter on shifting ideas about death.

My favourite chapter is the last, on Byron. Perhaps this is because I have a crush on the club-footed emperor of English verse. But it also gives Porter an opportunity for his greatest flourishes of wit:

Not least for Byron, reincarnation was somewhat disgusting: was not temporal embodiment quite enough? Through the hundreds of stanzas of Childe Harold, Don Juan and the like, the greasy obesity of the aristocratic high life of the day, the podgy Prince of Wales and all the dowdy dowagers excited the deepest revulsion. The Christian threat of all that fat flesh further reincarnated did not merely offend Byron's reason; it turned his stomach.

Compared to other histories of the self, this one offers concrete detail, brilliant prose and a compact conclusion of almost superhuman concision, about the major changes in big ideas about the self over the eighteenth century. It is considerably more readable than Dror Wahrman's The Making of the Modern Self: Identity and Culture in Eighteenth-Century England, but it considers a much narrower range of evidence. By contrast, it is much more wide-ranging than Charles Taylor's Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity, but lacks the deep philosophical consideration of the nature and importance of the self. There could certainly have been a few more women included, and the European context was sadly lacking in most chapters. But as far as it goes, Flesh in the Age of Reason is nearly faultless. The best of Porter's excellent books I've read.

[Paul Erling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent overview of the milieu out of which the great 17th and 18th century thinkers spun their various takes on materialism and the promise of reason against the backdrop of the severe problems the development of science and mechanical philosophy posed for those who would attempt to hold onto ideas of the self and an incorporeal soul.

Clearly, understandings of the body and the soul would have to change with the changing philosophies, but Porter brilliantly unearths all of the minor figures that allow you to see just what the major thinkers, like Locke, Hobbes and Hume, and others into the 19th century were reacting against. The details about the lives of these people, their personal hobby horses and foibles are sketched out in brilliant detail.

Highly recommended.

[Erik Ryberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept is very interesting, but there is an overwhelming amount of perspectives. The highlighting of some disparate views on the Enlightenment body in Britain would have been ideal or else this book as a journal article. Porter was clever and engaging with his writing, but perhaps quantity overcame quality in this case.

[Barry Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

[BeeQuiet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having been recommended this book by a professor of sociology, I had high hopes for Flesh in the Age of Reason, and I was not disappointed. Porter deftly handles multiple facets of philosophy around the time of the enlightenment, weaving together the ideas of well known theorists on the links between mind, soul, spirit and the body. From Descarte's reasoning on the duality of the mind and body, providing a vehicle for discourse still relating to religion through to later atheists' ideas, Porter never fails to bring the reader to a rounded understanding of the social, historical and philosophical contexts involved.

[MadgeUK · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the last book written by Professor Roy Porter formerly of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. He died a week after completing it. It is a lively account of the philosophy of medicine during the Age of Reason/Enlightenment and contains some rather gruesome anecdotes about great doctors as well as an insight into their thinking on the subject of human suffering. A very entertaining book with an excellent overview of the history of the period, which Porter always brought to life so superbly.

[Chris]

These were the guys who "thought for our freedom"! Porter is original not only in his ability to explicate eighteenth century thinking in plain English, but especially for getting under the skin of writers and thinkers like Locke, Johnson, Goodwin, Blake and many many others. Instead of criticising from an ideological base, he empathizes with the kind of mind-wrenching psychological pain they went through to liberate consciousness from centuries of church-state dogma. We owe them so much, and Porter too for explicating it all so lucidly. Highly recommended.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted so much to like this book, and cannot help but feel that my rating reflects not so much the books failure but my own. I liked the firt portion, though it could be incredibly dense. The second portion was more accessible, but I felt as though the focus wandered . . . this is when I stopped reading.

Mostly, I didn't want my rating to go unannotated as it is such a deviation from the standard rating. Mark it up to my having been away from intellectual history for so very long.

[Jemma · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good tour of the complexities of the subject but sadly not his best work. Roy Porter will be sadly missed as one of the most engaging lecturers I have ever had the pleasure to hear. A man who could speak so eloquently, interestingly and excitingly about History that you would completely forget his dishevelled appearance and the massive stain on his shirt.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't recommend this book highly enough to someone with intersecting interests in medicine, philosophy and intellectual history of the eighteenth century. Roy Porter is not only a thorough researcher who presents a volume of carefully compiled ideas and arguments, but he is also thoroughly readable. His enthusiasm and interest are infectious. It's a brilliant read.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting read on the changing views on the human body and religion in the 17 and 18th centuries. It takes us through the thoughts of some heavy hitters during that time period. Some chapters were more interesting than others. What surprises me from these early thinkers is that religion still has such a foothold in the world today especially in the U.S.

[Chris Loves to Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

"How the Enlightenment provided a lens through which we can best see the profound shift from the theocentric, otherworldly, Dark Ages to the modern, earthly body-centered world we live in today."
This was dense, but a very good book.

[Richard Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book which is hard going despite being well, even elegantly written. This is because his thinking is deep and requires the reader to think about what has just been read and to order thinking accordingly.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting study of the attitudes toward the body as Europe moved from the Christian-dominated Middle Ages and Renaissance to the Enlightenment. A witty writer.

[Leif Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars is actually rather kind. Really wanted to like this book as the subject and author are favorites of mine. Sadly, there is no way to ignore the lack of editing or disjointed tone.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great tour through modern Western civilization's development of SELF.