The limits of optimism : Thomas Jefferson's dualistic enlightenment / Maurizio Valsania.

By:

Valsania, Maurizio, 1965-

Material type: Text

TextSeries: Jeffersonian AmericaPublication details: Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2011.Description: 1 online resource (207 pages)Content type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

9780813931517
0813931517
1280490276
9781280490279
9786613585509
6613585505

Subject(s): Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Limits of optimism.DDC classification:

973.4/6092 22

LOC classification:

E332.2 .V35 2011eb

Online resources:

Click here to access online

Contents:

Enlightenment and dualism -- Optimism as certainty -- From faith to hope -- Nature and time as overwhelming powers -- Impossibility and despondency -- Dream, imagination, and expediency.

Summary: Annotation The Limits of Optimism works to dispel persistent notions about Jefferson's allegedly paradoxical and sphinx-like quality. Maurizio Valsania shows that Jefferson's multifaceted character and personality are to a large extent the logical outcome of an anti-metaphysical, enlightened, and humility-oriented approach to reality. That Jefferson's mind and priorities changed over time and in response to changing circumstances indicates neither incoherence, hypocrisy, nor pathology. Valsania's reading of Jefferson, the Enlightenment, and negativity helps to make sense of the many paradoxes typically associated with that eighteenth-century thinker. At the same time, it provides a corrective to the common though erroneous equation of Enlightenment thinking with rationalism and shallow optimism.

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Item type	Home library	Collection	Call number	Materials specified	Status	Date due	Barcode
Electronic-Books	OPJGU Sonepat- Campus	E-Books EBSCO			Available

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Enlightenment and dualism -- Optimism as certainty -- From faith to hope -- Nature and time as overwhelming powers -- Impossibility and despondency -- Dream, imagination, and expediency.

Print version record.

Annotation The Limits of Optimism works to dispel persistent notions about Jefferson's allegedly paradoxical and sphinx-like quality. Maurizio Valsania shows that Jefferson's multifaceted character and personality are to a large extent the logical outcome of an anti-metaphysical, enlightened, and humility-oriented approach to reality. That Jefferson's mind and priorities changed over time and in response to changing circumstances indicates neither incoherence, hypocrisy, nor pathology. Valsania's reading of Jefferson, the Enlightenment, and negativity helps to make sense of the many paradoxes typically associated with that eighteenth-century thinker. At the same time, it provides a corrective to the common though erroneous equation of Enlightenment thinking with rationalism and shallow optimism.

English.

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