Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: An Interpretatn - PhilPapers

In this classic work of tellectual history, Ernst Cassirer provis both a gent synthis and a peratg analysis of one of history's greatt tellectual epochs: the Enlightenment. Argug that there was a mon foundatn beneath the diverse strands of thought of this perd, he shows how Enlightenment philosophers drew upon the ias of the precedg centuri even while radilly transformg them to f the morn world. In Cassirer's view, the Enlightenment liberated philosophy om the realm of pure thought and rtored to s te place as an active and creative force through which knowledge of the world is achieved. In a new foreword, Peter Gay nsirs The Philosophy of the Enlightenment the ntext which was wrten--Germany 1932, on the precipice of the Nazi seizure of power and one of the greatt asslts on the ials of the Enlightenment. He also argu that Cassirer's work remas a trenchant fense agast enemi of the Enlightenment the twenty-first century.