Locke in France 1688-1734
Author: Ross Hutchinson
Volume: 290
Series: SVEC
Publication Date: 1991
Pages: 260
ISBN: 978-0-7294-0418-1
Price: £60
About
As France moved from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century, it found itself in the grip of anglomanie – a fascination with new English ideas in the domains of science and philosophy. Chief among the English thinkers it enthusiastically embraced was John Locke. On his visits to France and in his personal correspondence, Locke interacted with prominent French thinkers, scientists and savants of the day, such as Charles Barbeyrac and Pierre Magnol, and his works engaged in a critical dialogue with those of Descartes.
However, Locke has been fêted to such an extent that his position in the history of ideas in France is often overlooked. In Locke in France 1688-1734, Ross Hutchison re-examines and re-contextualises the precise nature and extent of Locke’s influence in France by exploring how his ideas were incorporated into contemporary French debates and controversies in the transitional period from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century.
Hutchison highlights the various channels of dissemination which brought Locke to the attention of the French, including translations of his major works and his personal friendships with French Protestant
exiles. Hutchison also presents case studies of interactions in which Lockean ideas played a dominant role in the evolution of French thought, ranging from political theory to the nature of language, theories of education, and the relation between soul and matter.
Preface
Introduction
1. Locke in France: the first stages
2. Jean Barbeyrac, John Locke and jurisprudence
3. Locke, word-order and natural grammar
4. Buffier and Locke: a study in influence
5. Machines and men: bodies and souls as philosophical controversy
6. Voltaire, Locke and the thirteenth letter
7. Conclusion
Bibliography
Bibliography (appendix); 17th and 18th-century editions and printings of the works of John Locke
Index
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