Author: M. de (Bernard Le Bovier) Fontenelle
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520071719
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 136
Book Description
Surveying the night sky, a charming philosopher and his hostess, the Marquise, are considering thep ossibility of travelers from the moon. "What if they were skillful enough to navigate on the outer surface of our air, and from there, through their curiosity to see us, they angled for us like fish? Would that please you?" asks the philosopher. "Why not?" the Marquise replies. "As for me, I'd put myself into their nets of my own volition just to have the pleasure of seeing those who caught me." In this imaginary conversation of three hundred years ago, readers can share the excitement of a new, extremely daring view of the uinverse. Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds (Entretiens sur la pluralit des mondes), first published in 1686, is one of the best loved classics of the early French enlightenment. Through a series of informal dialogues that take place on successive evenings in the marquise's moonlit gardens, Fontenelle describes the new cosmology of the Copernican world view with matchles clarity, imagination, and wit. Moreover, he boldly makes his interlocutor a woman, inviting female participation in the almost exclusively male province of scientific discourse. The popular Fontenelle lived through an entire century, from 1657 to 1757, and wrote prolifically. H. A. Hargreaves's fresh, appealing translation brings the author's masterpiece to new generations of readers, while the introduction by Nina Rattner Gelbart clearly demonstrates the importance of the Conversations for the history of science, of women, of literature, and of French civilization, and for the popularization of culture.
Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds
Author: M. de (Bernard Le Bovier) Fontenelle
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520071719
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 136
Book Description
Surveying the night sky, a charming philosopher and his hostess, the Marquise, are considering thep ossibility of travelers from the moon. "What if they were skillful enough to navigate on the outer surface of our air, and from there, through their curiosity to see us, they angled for us like fish? Would that please you?" asks the philosopher. "Why not?" the Marquise replies. "As for me, I'd put myself into their nets of my own volition just to have the pleasure of seeing those who caught me." In this imaginary conversation of three hundred years ago, readers can share the excitement of a new, extremely daring view of the uinverse. Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds (Entretiens sur la pluralit des mondes), first published in 1686, is one of the best loved classics of the early French enlightenment. Through a series of informal dialogues that take place on successive evenings in the marquise's moonlit gardens, Fontenelle describes the new cosmology of the Copernican world view with matchles clarity, imagination, and wit. Moreover, he boldly makes his interlocutor a woman, inviting female participation in the almost exclusively male province of scientific discourse. The popular Fontenelle lived through an entire century, from 1657 to 1757, and wrote prolifically. H. A. Hargreaves's fresh, appealing translation brings the author's masterpiece to new generations of readers, while the introduction by Nina Rattner Gelbart clearly demonstrates the importance of the Conversations for the history of science, of women, of literature, and of French civilization, and for the popularization of culture.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520071719
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 136
Book Description
Surveying the night sky, a charming philosopher and his hostess, the Marquise, are considering thep ossibility of travelers from the moon. "What if they were skillful enough to navigate on the outer surface of our air, and from there, through their curiosity to see us, they angled for us like fish? Would that please you?" asks the philosopher. "Why not?" the Marquise replies. "As for me, I'd put myself into their nets of my own volition just to have the pleasure of seeing those who caught me." In this imaginary conversation of three hundred years ago, readers can share the excitement of a new, extremely daring view of the uinverse. Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds (Entretiens sur la pluralit des mondes), first published in 1686, is one of the best loved classics of the early French enlightenment. Through a series of informal dialogues that take place on successive evenings in the marquise's moonlit gardens, Fontenelle describes the new cosmology of the Copernican world view with matchles clarity, imagination, and wit. Moreover, he boldly makes his interlocutor a woman, inviting female participation in the almost exclusively male province of scientific discourse. The popular Fontenelle lived through an entire century, from 1657 to 1757, and wrote prolifically. H. A. Hargreaves's fresh, appealing translation brings the author's masterpiece to new generations of readers, while the introduction by Nina Rattner Gelbart clearly demonstrates the importance of the Conversations for the history of science, of women, of literature, and of French civilization, and for the popularization of culture.
Naturalism and Unbelief in France, 1650–1729
Author: Alan Charles Kors
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316684091
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 339
Book Description
Atheism was the most fundamental challenge to early-modern French certainties. Leading educators, theologians and philosophers labelled such atheism as manifestly absurd, confident that neither the fact nor behaviour of nature was explicable without reference to God. The alternative was a categorical naturalism. This book demonstrates that the Christian learned world had always contained the naturalistic 'atheist' as an interlocutor and a polemical foil, and its early-modern engagement and use of the hypothetical atheist were major parts of its intellectual life. In the considerations and polemics of an increasingly fractious orthodox culture, the early-modern French learned world gave real voice and eventually life to that atheistic presence. Without understanding the actual context and convergence of the inheritance, scholarship, fierce disputes, and polemical modes of orthodox culture, the early-modern generation and dissemination of absolute naturalism are inexplicable. This book brings to life that Christian learned culture, its dilemmas, and its unintended consequences.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316684091
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 339
Book Description
Atheism was the most fundamental challenge to early-modern French certainties. Leading educators, theologians and philosophers labelled such atheism as manifestly absurd, confident that neither the fact nor behaviour of nature was explicable without reference to God. The alternative was a categorical naturalism. This book demonstrates that the Christian learned world had always contained the naturalistic 'atheist' as an interlocutor and a polemical foil, and its early-modern engagement and use of the hypothetical atheist were major parts of its intellectual life. In the considerations and polemics of an increasingly fractious orthodox culture, the early-modern French learned world gave real voice and eventually life to that atheistic presence. Without understanding the actual context and convergence of the inheritance, scholarship, fierce disputes, and polemical modes of orthodox culture, the early-modern generation and dissemination of absolute naturalism are inexplicable. This book brings to life that Christian learned culture, its dilemmas, and its unintended consequences.
Epicureans and Atheists in France, 1650-1729
Author: Alan Charles Kors
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107132649
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 253
Book Description
This book describes how French Christian culture allowed the dissemination of Epicureanism, which denied divine design. In its wake, an assertive atheism appeared.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107132649
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 253
Book Description
This book describes how French Christian culture allowed the dissemination of Epicureanism, which denied divine design. In its wake, an assertive atheism appeared.
Australian Journal of French Studies
Catalogus librorum Bibliothecae caesareae universitatis s. Vladimiri
Author: Kyïvsʹkyĭ derz︠h︡avnyĭ universytet im. T. H. Shevchenka. Biblioteka
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Academic libraries
Languages : un
Pages : 978
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Academic libraries
Languages : un
Pages : 978
Book Description
Manuel Du Bibliographe Normand
Author: Édouard Frère
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : French literature
Languages : fr
Pages : 520
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : French literature
Languages : fr
Pages : 520
Book Description
Oeuvres diverses de M. de Fontenelle, de l'Academie francoise. Tome premier [-second]
Author: Bernard : de Fontenelle
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : fr
Pages : 266
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : fr
Pages : 266
Book Description
Oeuvres de Fontenelle
Author: Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : fr
Pages : 314
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : fr
Pages : 314
Book Description
A Catalogue of Thirty Thousand Volumes ... of Several Libraries ... Particularly the Library of William Kynaston ... the Ingenious ... Josiah Martin ... as Also the Libraries of W. Glanvil ... Mr. Jackson
Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century
Author: Theodore Besterman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Eighteenth century
Languages : en
Pages : 398
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Eighteenth century
Languages : en
Pages : 398
Book Description