ABSTRACT

The Enlightenment era saw European thinkers increasingly concerned with what it meant to be human. This collection of essays traces the concept of ‘humanity’ through revolutionary politics, feminist biography, portraiture, explorer narratives, libertine and Orientalist fiction, the philosophy of conversation and musicology.

chapter |14 pages

The Science and Politics of Humanity in the Eighteenth Century: an Introduction

ByAlexander Cook, Ned Curthoys, Shino Konishi

chapter |14 pages

Moses Mendelssohn and the Character of Virtue

ByNed Curthoys

chapter |12 pages

Fictions of Human Community

ByJonathan Lamb