Humankind and Humanity in the Philosophy of the Enlightenment - by Stefanie Buchenau & Ansgar Lyssy (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

What makes us human beings? Is it merely some corporeal aspect, or rather some specific mental capacity, language, or some form of moral agency or social life? Is there a gendered bias within the concept of humanity? How do human beings become more human, and can we somehow cease to be human? This volume provides some answers to these fundamental questions and more by charting the increased preoccupation of the European Enlightenment with the concepts of humankind and humanity.

Chapters investigate the philosophical concerns of major figures across Western Europe, including Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau, Locke, Hume, Ferguson, Kant, Herder, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach and the Comte de Buffon. As these philosophers develop important descriptive and comparative approaches to the human species and moral and social ideals of humanity, they present a view of the Enlightenment project as a particular kind of humanism that is different from its Ancient and Renaissance predecessors.

With contributions from a team of internationally recognized scholars, including Stephen Gaukroger, Michael Forster, Céline Spector, Jacqueline Taylor, and Günter Zöller, this book offers a novel interpretation of the Enlightenment that is both clear in focus and impressive in scope.

Review Quotes

Kant famously stated that "out of the crooked timber of humanity nothing entirely straight can be made." But this certainly hasn't prevented Stefanie Buchenau and Ansgar Lyssy from putting together an outstanding collection of new essays on Enlightenment views about the multiple and complex dimensions of humanity and humankind.
Robert B. Louden, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of Southern Maine, USA

The "human sciences" were one of the great initiatives of the European Enlightenment, and perhaps one of its foremost achievements. In this collection, an excellent group of scholars traces out through the greatest thinkers of that age the new philosophical and empirical investigation of the biological nature and cultural history of humankind.
John Zammito, Baker College Professor Emeritus for History of Science, Technology and Innovation, Rice University, USA

About the Author

Stefanie Buchenau is Professor of German and European History of Ideas at the University Paris 8 Saint-Denis, France.

Ansgar Lyssy currently holds a fixed-term position as a philosophy professor at the University of Leipzig, Germany.