The Eighteenth century is often represented, applying Tom Paine's phrase, as 'The Age of Reason': an age when progressive ideals triumphed over autocracy and obscurantism, and when notions of order and balance shaped consciousness in every sphere of human knowledge. Yet the debates which surrounded the development of Eighteenth-century thought were always open to troubling doubts. Was nature itself truly an ordered entity, as Newton had argued, or was it a mass of chaotic, randomly moving atoms, as some materialist thinkers believed? This book explores the tensions and conflicts in these debates through a series of interdisciplinary essays from leading international scholars, each challenging the idea that the Eighteenth century was an age of order.

Recent scholarship had emphasised the importance of a number of non-literary, economic and social debates to the understanding of Augustan Literature. Debates over the place of land, money, credit and luxury in society, as well as strands of radical thinking, are prominent throughout the period. Originally published in 1984, this anthology of eighteenth century writings about contemporary society is divided into sections on the social order, economics, the poor and crime, with a general introduction identifying some of the dominant social discourses of the period. They reflect the emergence of an embryonic capitalist society, with its challenge to feudal ties, and of a nascent bourgeois class. This collection of writings is not intended to provide material for an empirical historical account of these changes, but to give some idea of the ideological terms in which they are perceived, endorsed or contested by contemporaries; and provide a set of discursive contexts in which the imaginative literature of the period can be read. The texts themselves repay close analysis as the bearers of complex ideological positions and it is interesting to observe how, for example, Pope accommodates Shaftesbury and Mandeville in the Moral Essays. A fascinating anthology, Literature and the Social Order in Eighteenth-Century England, complete with editor’s introduction and notes on the passages, aims to suggest lines of inquiry without offering a ‘total’ reading.

This two-volume set presents a comprehensive and up-to-date history of eighteenth-century philosophy. The subject is treated systematically by topic, not by individual thinker, school, or movement, thus enabling a much more historically nuanced picture of the period to be painted.

In The Historical Foundations of World Order: the Tower and the Arena, Douglas M. Johnston has drawn on a 45 year career as one of the world’s most prolific academics in the development of international law and public policy and 5 years of exhaustive research to produce a comprehensive and highly nuanced examination of the historical precursors, intellectual developments, and philosophical frameworks that have guided the progress of world order through recorded history and across the globe, from pre-classical antiquity to the present day. By illuminating the personalities and identifying the controversies behind the great advancements in international legal thought and weaving this into the context of more conventionally known history, Johnston presents a unique understanding of how peoples and nations have sought regularity, justice and order across the ages. This book will appeal to a wide spectrum of readers, from lawyers interested in the historical background of familiar concepts, to curriculum developers for law schools and history faculties, to general interest readers wanting a wider perspective on the history of civilization. Winner 2009 ASIL Certificate of Merit for a Preeminent Contribution to Creative Scholarship

The Eighteenth century is often represented, applying Tom Paine's phrase, as 'The Age of Reason': an age when progressive ideals triumphed over autocracy and obscurantism, and when notions of order and balance shaped consciousness in every sphere of human knowledge. Yet the debates which surrounded the development of Eighteenth-century thought were always open to troubling doubts. Was nature itself truly an ordered entity, as Newton had argued, or was it a mass of chaotic, randomly moving atoms, as some materialist thinkers believed? This book explores the tensions and conflicts in these debates through a series of interdisciplinary essays from leading international scholars, each challenging the idea that the Eighteenth century was an age of order.

Ayesha Ramachandran reconstructs the imaginative struggles of early modern artists, philosophers, and writers to make sense of something that we take for granted: the world, imagined as a whole. 'The Worldmakers' moves beyond histories of globalisation to explore how 'the world' itself - variously understood as an object of inquiry, a comprehensive category, and a system of order - was self-consciously shaped by human agents.

Leading Marxist thinkers re-evaluate Trotsky's key theories -- an ideal introduction for students.

An analysis of the forces which shaped politics and culture in Germany, France and Great Britain in the eighteenth century.

This introduction offers an explanation of how fossils are a product of our evolving habitat. The emphasis is on what paleontology is really about, how the paleontologist tries to find out the ways in which fossil animals lived and how geological processes have interacted with the history of life.

First published in 1991, this is a reissue of the path-breaking Dictionary of Conservative and Libertarian Thought, the first book to examine the ideals and arguments produced by the intellectual traditions of both conservatism and classical liberalism. Covering the ideas of many such distinguished thinkers as Hayek, Scruton, Friedman and Buchanan, the volume provides a valuable survey of the historical development of both schools of thought in all of the major western countries and their contributions to contemporary debates. From American Conservatism to French Liberalism, Invisible Hand to Organic Society, from Scientism to Scepticism and Utopianism to Voluntarism, this is a vital work whose reissue will be welcomed as much by the keen layperson as by students of political science, the history of philosophy, economics and public policy.