The Case for the Enlightenment is a comparative study of the emergence of Enlightenment in Scotland and in Naples. Challenging the tendency to fragment the Enlightenment in eighteenth-century Europe into multiple Enlightenments, the distinguished intellectual historian John Robertson demonstrates the extent to which thinkers in two societies at the opposite ends of Europe shared common intellectual preoccupations. Before 1700, Scotland and Naples faced a bleak future as backward, provincial kingdoms in a Europe of aggressive commercial states. Yet by 1760, Scottish and Neapolitan thinkers were in the van of those advocating the cause of Enlightenment by means of political economy. By studying the social and institutional contexts of intellectual life in the two countries, and the currents of thought promoted within them, The Case for the Enlightenment explains this transformation. John Robertson pays particular attention to the greatest thinkers in each country, David Hume and Giambattista Vico.

An interesting and ambitious comparative study of the emergence of Enlightenment in Scotland and Naples.

About the Author
JOHN ROBERTSON is University Lecturer in Modern History and a Fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford.

Reviews
'I look forward ... to the debates that this fine book will produce.' The Times Literary Supplement
'John Robertson's excellent new book presents a sustained comparison of intellectual life in Naples and Scotland ... in order - among other things - to argue against Israel's revisionist periodisation.' The Philosophers' Magazine



Book Information
ISBN 9780521035729
Author John Robertson
Format Paperback
Page Count 476
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 706g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 28mm