State of Nature, Stages of Society

Frank Palmeri

Frank Palmeri

State of Nature, Stages of Society

Enlightenment Conjectural History and Modern Social Discourse

In: Columbia Studies in Political Thought / Political History

Columbia University Press | 2016

https://doi.org/10.7312/palm17516

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About this book

Frank Palmeri sees the conjectural histories of Rousseau, Hume, Herder, and other Enlightenment philosophers as a template for the development of the social sciences in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Without documents or memorials, these thinkers, he argues, employed conjecture to formulate a naturalistic account of society's commercial and secular progression. This speculative framework creates a surprising ambivalence toward modernity in these disciplines.

Takes the conjectural histories of Rousseau, Hume, Herder, and other Enlightenment philosophers as a template for the development of the social sciences in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Author information

Frank Palmeri is a professor of English at the University of Miami. He is the author of Satire in Narrative: Petronius, Swift, Gibbon, Melville, Pynchon (1990) and Satire, History, Novel: Narrative Forms, 1665-1815 (2003), and the editor of Humans and Other Animals in Eighteenth-Century British Culture: Representation, Hybridity, Ethics (2006).

Reviews

The most precise and the most wide-ranging conceptual anaylsis of eighteenth-century conjectural history available.... Required reading.

Highly recommended.

Mark Salber Phillips, author of Society and Sentiment: The Genres of Historical Writing in Britain 1740-1820:
Often the best books are those that teach you something that was staring you in the face all along. This is the case with Frank Palmeri's illuminating study of conjectural history. Thanks to this remarkable book what seemed like a contained feature of the Scottish Enlightenment now stands out as an influential form of historical thought right across eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe and beyond. An important contribution to intellectual history.

Noah Heringman, author of Sciences of Antiquity: Romantic Antiquarianism, Natural History, and Knowledge Work :
State of Nature, Stages of Society is an original, timely, and deeply learned work that will serve a useful purpose for a wide range of readers. Frank Palmeri's erudition and his commitment to a longue durée for the genre put him in an excellent position to become the authority of record for scholars and students of both eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European culture who want a solid grounding in conjectural history.

Sir Malcolm Jack, author of Corruption and Progress: The Eighteenth-Century Debate:
Frank Palmeri tackles one of the most significant ideas of Enlightenment thought in this comprehensive and thoroughly researched book on conjectural history. Tracing the origin of the concept in French and Scottish writers, such as Rousseau, Hume, and Smith, in the mid-eighteenth century, he also shows how it was transmitted through nineteenth-century writers, such as Malthus and Marx, to form a fundamental building block of modernity. Nuanced and erudite, this book will serve as an important source for scholars and others interested in the intellectual origins of modern social and political theory.

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	i
Contents Free access PDF PDF	v
Foreword Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	xi
Introduction: Conjectural History, the Form and Its Afterlife Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	1
1. Conjectural History: The Enlightenment Form Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	27
2. Political Economy and the Question of Progress Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	59
3. Comte, Spencer, and the Science of Society Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	89
4. The Origins of Culture and of Anthropology Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	121
5. Darwin, Nietzsche, and the Prehistory of the Human Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	163
6. The Social Psychology of Religion Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	198
7. Novels as Conjectural Histories Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	225
Conclusion: Conjecturalism Now Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	250
Appendix 1. Enlightenment Conjectural Histories Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	273
Appendix 2. Hegel, History, and Conjecture Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	275
Appendix 3. Were Conjectural Histories Racist? Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	281
Notes Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	287
Index Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	361

State of Nature, Stages of Society

Enlightenment Conjectural History and Modern Social Discourse

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