Title The age of reasons : quixotism, sentimentalism, and political economy in eighteenth-century Britain / Wendy Motooka

Published London ; New York : Routledge, 1998

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 282 pages) Series Routledge studies in social and political thought ; 12 Routledge studies in social and political thought ; 12. Contents 1. Turning authority into jest : tyrants, pedants, quixotes and enthusiasts in the early eighteenth century -- 2. Common sense, moral sense and nonsense : sentimentalism and the empirical study of invisible things -- 3. Coming to a bad end : sentimentalism, The female Quixote and the power of interest -- 4. Seeing the general view : Henry Fielding and quixotic authorship -- 5. De gustibus non est disputandum : Tristram Shandy and "the production of a rational being" -- 6. Laying down the general rule : Adam Smith, impartial spectators and the philosopher's trade Summary The Age of Reasons reads Don Quixote as a parodic example of eighteenth-century "reason." Reason was supposed to be universally compelling, yet it was also thought to be empirically derived. Quixotic figures satirize these assumptions by appearing to be utterly insane, while reproducing the conditions of universal rationality: they staunchly believe that reason is universal, that it can be confirmed by experience, and that they themselves are rational Joining imaginative literature, moral philosophy and the emerging discourse of the new science, she seeks to historicize the meaning of eighteenth-century "reason" and its supposed opposites, quixotism and sentimentalism. Reading novels by the Fieldings, Lennox and Sterne alongside the works of Adam Smith, Motooka argues that the legacy of sentimentalism is the social sciences. The Age of Reasons raises our understanding of eighteenth-century British culture and its relation to the "rational" culture of economics that is growing ever more pervasive today Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 262-274) and index Notes Print version record Subject Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, 1547-1616. Don Quixote. Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, 1547-1616 -- Influence Smith, Adam, 1723-1790. SUBJECT Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, 1547-1616 fast Smith, Adam, 1723-1790 fast Don Quixote (Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de) fast Subject Economics -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century English fiction -- 18th century -- History and criticism Satire, English -- History and criticism Philosophy, Modern -- 18th century. Sentimentalism in literature. Rationalism in literature. Civilization Economics English fiction Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.) Philosophy, Modern Rationalism in literature Satire, English Sentimentalism in literature SUBJECT Great Britain -- Civilization -- 18th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056624 Subject Great Britain Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. History Form Electronic book ISBN 1299626599 9781299626591

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