ABSTRACT
Depending upon one's vantage point, the eighteenth century offers a different visage. For philosophers it appears as the Age of Enlightenment, of Reason, or of Critique. Legal historians see in the epoch a momentous shift away from the ageold ius commune to a principle of law based on a social contract and a concept of human dignity, expressed in enduring documents such as the Bill of Rights. It culminated in systematic codices such as the "Allgemeine Landrecht" in Prussia (1794) and the "Allgemeines Burgerliches Gesetzbuch" in Austria (1811). Political scientists see in the century an Age of Revolution and the grounding of a civil society. Literary historians value the era for the emergence of a new poetic language, the rise of the modern novel, and the birth of the personal subject. Depending upon one's particular national bias, the century is variously pronounced to be the Age of Johnson, the Age of Goethe, or the Age of Voltaire. All agree on the broad designations: the Age of Reason and the Age of Sensibility. Finally, due to the rapid advances in science and technology we can also speak of the eighteenth century as the Age of New Science. Common to all of the above is the growing sense of individual uniqueness and of a new historicism. Indeed, we can conclude with Lawrence Lipking: "the eighteenth century is pi ural." , Moreover, it is being reinvented time and time again. What we are experiencing is a renewed awareness of the complexity of the age.
