F駭elon: Moral and Political Writings (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780190079598)

F駭elon is arguably one of the most neglected major philosophers of early modernity. His political masterwork was the most-read book in eighteenth-century France after the Bible, and yet today even specialists rarely engage his work directly. This problem is particularly acute in the Anglophone world, where only a small fraction of F駭elon's vast and influential corpus has appeared in modern English translation.

This collection of new translations of F駭elon's moral and political writings renders one of the leading voices of early modern philosophy accessible to English-language audiences. Reflecting the impressive breadth of Fenelon's thought, the volume includes work on topics ranging from education to literature to religion and statecraft. In the realm of political philosophy and ethics, F駭elon was an uncompromising critic of Louis XIV and absolutism, committed to reforming France's social, political and economic institutions. In the Enlightenment, he came to be celebrated as a pioneering theorist of education and rhetoric, a prescient student of economics and international relations, and a key voice in the philosophical debates among the heirs of Descartes - not to mention his fame as one of the seventeenth-century's most preeminent theologians and spiritualists and masters of French prose. With an extensive introduction to F駭elon's life and work, this volume is a critical resource for students and scholars of French history, political philosophy, economics, education, literature, and religion.

Author: Ryan Patrick Hanley
ISBN-10: 0190079592
ISBN-13: 9780190079598
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Language: English
Published: 03/11/2020
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.10w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 08/01/2021