Description
| Summary: | "This study redraws the intellectual map of the Enlightenment and reassesses the legacy of that highly influential period for us today. Peter Hanns Reill argues that in the middle of the eighteenth century a major shift occurred in the way Enlightenment thinkers conceived of nature that caused many of them to reject the prevailing doctrine of mechanism and turn to a vitalistic model to account for phenomena in natural history, the life sciences, and chemistry. As he traces the ramifications of this new way of thinking through time and across disciplines, Reill complicates our understanding of the way key Enlightenment thinkers viewed nature. His sophisticated analysis ultimately questions postmodern narratives of a monolithic Enlightenment - characterized by the dominance of instrumental reason - that has led to many of the disasters of modern life."--Jacket.
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (x, 388 p.) |
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| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (p. 327-366) and index. |
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| ISBN: | 9780520931008
0520931009
9780520241350
0520241355
1598755471
9781598755473
1282357492
9781282357495 |
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| Source of Description, Etc. Note: | Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed. |
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