The Scottish Enlightenment

Race, Gender, and the Limits of Progress

Nonfiction, History, European General, Modern
Cover of the book The Scottish Enlightenment by Silvia Sebastiani, Palgrave Macmillan US
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Author: Silvia Sebastiani ISBN: 9781137069795
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan US Publication: February 20, 2013
Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan Language: English
Author: Silvia Sebastiani
ISBN: 9781137069795
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication: February 20, 2013
Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan
Language: English

The Scottish Enlightenment shaped a new conception of history as a gradual and universal progress from savagery to civil society. Whereas women emancipated themselves from the yoke of male-masters, men in turn acquired polite manners and became civilized. Such a conception, however, presents problematic questions: why were the Americans still savage? Why was it that the Europeans only had completed all the stages of the historic process? Could modern societies escape the destiny of earlier empires and avoid decadence? Was there a limit beyond which women's influence might result in dehumanization? The Scottish Enlightenment's legacy for modernity emerges here as a two-faced Janus, an unresolved tension between universalism and hierarchy, progress and the limits of progress.

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The Scottish Enlightenment shaped a new conception of history as a gradual and universal progress from savagery to civil society. Whereas women emancipated themselves from the yoke of male-masters, men in turn acquired polite manners and became civilized. Such a conception, however, presents problematic questions: why were the Americans still savage? Why was it that the Europeans only had completed all the stages of the historic process? Could modern societies escape the destiny of earlier empires and avoid decadence? Was there a limit beyond which women's influence might result in dehumanization? The Scottish Enlightenment's legacy for modernity emerges here as a two-faced Janus, an unresolved tension between universalism and hierarchy, progress and the limits of progress.

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