Left-Kantian Perfectionism

From roughly the fifteenth century, Europeans built upon inventions and developments elsewhere to move from the decentralised system of agricultural production to state-centric and technologically enhanced forms of capitalist industrialisation. Centralising European states promoted capitalist arrangements that favoured the accumulation of wealth by a minority, whose decision-making power shaped the choices of and resources available to the majority. Increasing consolidation of power in nation-states altered loyalties as well as ‘economics’. Church-based authority declined due to religious debates, the development of rationalist thinking, and a new sense of human control over social and physical forces. Liberalism marked a decisive shift in thinking about reason, rights, individuals, and power-wielding institutions. Its eighteenth-century form rejected arbitrary power in favour of rights to private property, religious choice, and individual freedom. In the late eighteenth century, Adam Smith produced the first systematic analysis of ‘political economy’.

Fetishizing the Foot: Mobility and Meaning in Indian Ocean Sandals

<i>The Secret Life of Things: Animals, Objects, and It-Narratives in Eighteenth-Century England</i>. Edited by Mark Blackwell . Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2007. Pp. 365.

This chapter shows how arguments about intellectual property in the eighteenth century changed attitudes towards imitatio, and explores the emergence of romantic poetics from earlier arguments about imitation. It begins by considering Alexander Pope’s Dunciad and its distinction between ‘parodies’ of vernacular authors on the one hand and ‘imitations’ of classical texts on the other. It then shows how John Locke’s theories of property and early eighteenth-century legislation about copyright complicated that distinction between classical and vernacular texts. Through an analysis of William Lauder’s accusations that Milton was a plagiarist it demonstrates both how the reception of Paradise Lost became central to arguments about intellectual property in the period, and also how the Lauder affair led to changes in the ways theorists wrote about imitatio. Milton came to be regarded as both a common good which could be imitated freely, and as the most authoritative example of proprietorial vernacular author. That influenced how he was in turn imitated by later vernacular writers. William Wordsworth in particular frequently associated Milton with landscapes and areas such as public rights of way, which were simultaneously common goods and private property. Wordsworth consequently transformed the ancient metaphor of the imitator following in the footsteps of an earlier author into a representation of the poet ranging freely over a land which is partly a common good, and partly what is still called a literary ‘estate’.

<i>Instrumental Music in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples: Politics, Patronage and Artistic Culture</i>, by Anthony R. DelDonna

Book Review| January 01 2020 Book Review: Exquisite Slaves: Race, Clothing, and Status in Colonial Lima, by Tamara J. Walker Exquisite Slaves: Race, Clothing, and Status in Colonial Lima, by Tamara J. Walker. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 240 pages, 17 b/w illus. Hardcover $105.00, paperback $29.99, e-book $24.00. Reviewed by Julia McHugh. Julia McHugh Julia McHugh Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture (2020) 2 (1): 126–127. https://doi.org/10.1525/lavc.2020.210011 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Julia McHugh; Book Review: Exquisite Slaves: Race, Clothing, and Status in Colonial Lima, by Tamara J. Walker. Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture 1 January 2020; 2 (1): 126–127. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/lavc.2020.210011 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentLatin American and Latinx Visual Culture Search The viceregal Americas were a dynamic setting for global trade networks that extended in transatlantic, transpacific, and inter-American directions. Luxury goods, such as silks, yarns, fabrics, tapestries, ivory, ceramics, wines, foodstuffs, and medicines from China, the Philippines, and East Asia flooded American markets through the ports of Acapulco, Mexico, and Lima, Peru. These products, in addition to those from Europe and Central America, made their way to South American markets, despite numerous regulations imposed by the Spanish crown to curb the unrestricted entry and circulation of luxury goods in colonial society. Walker's Exquisite Slaves is a detailed and animated examination of one of the most coveted types of luxury goods in viceregal Peru: fine textiles. While clothing has been a popular topic for historians and art historians alike, garments have been examined largely in disconnect with the subjects who owned and wore them in a variety of public and private... You do not currently have access to this content.

Hieroglyphic State Machine

88 these pages. Staying current even toward the end, in May 1711 Walsh offered the first English publication of work from the recently arrived Georg Frideric Handel, ‘‘The Famous mock Song . . . Sung by Signra Boscchi’’ in Pyrrhus, which makes fun of the performance given by the great castrato Nicolini in an opera the previous season (no. 352). Much theater history can be mined from these pages. For whom was The Monthly Mask intended ? The original sheets assumed an audience who wished to read and play contemporary music, of which this was the first published form for many pieces. Consumers must have appeared, or Walsh would have discontinued the periodical much earlier. Single issues of four songsheets cost 6d., half the price of a seat in the upper gallery at the theater ; but sets could also be bound with a decorative title page. Pictures of several such title pages are included. Collectors , as opposed to casual purchasers, were predictably assumed to be upperclass , as the vocabulary of putti, herms, nymphs, astrological signs, trophies, masks, and altars shows. Only a handful of songs are in Italian, which did not become the language of opera in London until 1710. Still, the changes happening in native music, as well as outside criticism , had their effect. Expanding the Collier controversy in his Great Abuse of Music (1711), Arthur Bedford complained that young ladies who read the Monthly Mask were ‘‘furnished every Month with new Matter for Debauchery .’’ Some bawdy songs do indeed appear , but they are not all that obvious and certainly do not predominate. (For one example, see ‘‘The British Accountant ’’ (!), No. 317.) The editors suggest that the ‘‘huge success’’ of Handel’s Rinaldo, beginning in February 1711, turned Walsh away from the diminishing profits on songs for a general audience and toward publishing operatic music. Commentary in this edition is kept to a bare minimum and largely concerns facts. Not every song receives a comment , leaving users free to evaluate the inclusion of ‘‘A Catt Catch’’ (No. 214) or a horse race catch for four (No. 329) along with Handel. I could have wished for a subject index, but there are indices of first lines, titles, composers, singers, authors, and stage works and odes, as well as appendices that cover publication dates, reuse of the plates by Walsh before 1730, and surviving copies. Reproduced from clear exemplars drawn from many libraries, the large-format individual songs are unusually easy to read. The handsome, if pricey, BaldwinWilson edition should inspire much more attention to this valuable resource, previously so difficult of access. Judith Milhous Graduate Center, City University of New York PAUL GORING. Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture. London: Continuum , 2008. Pp. viii ⫹ 158. $20. Part of Continuum’s ‘‘Introductions to British Literature and Culture,’’ Mr. Goring’s textbook provides undergraduate students more information than usual regarding historical and literary developments and strikes a sound balance between breadth and depth. His study is divided into three areas: ‘‘Historical, Cultural, and Intellectual Context,’’ ‘‘Literature in the Eighteenth Century,’’ and ‘‘Critical Approaches.’’ ‘‘Resources for Independent Study’’ includes a chronology of important historical events, set alongside a publishing 89 history of key literary texts, a Glossary of terms and concepts, and a Bibliography . A book like Roy Porter’s English Society in the 18th Century (1990) is a better resource for contextual information, but its length, nearly 400 pages, proves difficult to manage in a course focused on literature rather than history. Mr. Goring’s, by contrast, is refreshingly concise. His overview of critical debates regarding canon formation, the development of a literary marketplace, and authorship—including female participation in that marketplace, Britishness, and the role literature played in the movement to abolish slavery—will be useful to students. Mr. Goring’s scope and depth, nevertheless , could be enriched. Literary periods are, of course, arbitrary, and Mr. Goring provides good arguments for starting with the dates that demarcate his sense of the period. But since his conception of ‘‘eighteenth century’’ begins with the ‘‘Glorious Revolution’’ in 1688, he might have considered going back to 1660, the starting point for the period in most anthologies and survey courses. This is particularly true of eighteenth-century theater. While Mr...

Reviewed by: Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid: Changing Feelings About Technology, From the Telegraph to Twitter by Luke Fernandez and Susan J. Matt Martina Hessler (bio) Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid: Changing Feelings About Technology, From the Telegraph to Twitter By Luke Fernandez and Susan J. Matt. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019. Pp. 464. The history of emotions is not an established field of research within the history of technology. Even though groundbreaking works have analyzed emotions toward technology, such as David Nye's American Technological Sublime (MIT Press, 1996) or Spencer Weart's Nuclear Fear (Harvard University Press, 2009), this is a rare focus. However, Luke Fernandez and Susan Matt's book demonstrates what a promising field of research this can be. Their starting point is observing a new American emotional style in the digital age. The authors refer to common contemporary statements about digital media, such as Facebook adding to loneliness or social media encouraging [End Page 1222] narcissism. They juxtapose such statements with a historical study that traces the changes in emotions since the eighteenth century. In doing so, they also demonstrate the importance of a historical contextualization of the digital present. In six chapters, they offer a thorough analysis of the history of six feelings: narcissism, loneliness, boredom, attention, awe, and anger. The book uses a wide array of sources: nineteenth and twentieth century diaries, letters, memoirs, and advertisements; psychological and sociological studies from the same period; and fifty-five interviews conducted between 2014 and 2018 to capture contemporary self-descriptions of the American emotional world. These interviews represent a small sample with predictable findings, but bring the study to the present day. In the introduction, the authors briefly outline the state of research in the history of emotions. Further, they refer to the basic consensus of the history of emotions: first, emotions have a history and are changeable; secondly, they are not purely biological, but also culturally shaped. The authors do not mention debates about different approaches, define terms, or provide conceptual considerations on the relationship between technology and emotions, which would have been useful for historians of technology. The aim of the book, however, is to understand a new American emotional style. Briefly and somewhat simplified, the authors summarize their core thesis: "Americans' emotional lives have changed as their society, culture, and technologies have changed. Today many are less humble about themselves and their powers and also less awed by the world around them. They expect constant stimulation, connection, affirmation, and activity, and they are disappointed when these expectations go unmet. This new conception of self breeds a sense of power and also a sense of disappointment" (p. 15). Throughout the book, Fernandez and Matt give voice to different social groups, revealing a variety of norms and experiences of emotions, while effectively describing changes in the broader patterns described in their summary. Interestingly, Fernandez and Matt describe the early twentieth century as a time of change for each emotion, with the interplay of all six emotions as central to the thesis of a new American emotional style. Only one chapter can be examined here. In the chapter on loneliness, the authors trace changing norms and experiences in a multifaceted way. People suffered from loneliness in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as well, illustrated by impressive quotes from slaves and workers. However, loneliness was regarded as a part of the human condition; it had to be endured. Loneliness was also considered a divine test, idealized by an individualistic ideology. In the twentieth century, the evaluation of loneliness began to change. It was no longer seen as something to passively endure, but something to actively fight. Around 1900, Lonely Clubs or Less Lonely Leagues emerged in cities. Letters had already been used to maintain social relationships [End Page 1223] from a distance and alleviate feelings of loneliness. Companies advertised radio and telephone as means of combating loneliness. According to the industry's message, loneliness could be fought with technology. In the course of the twentieth century, the negative view of loneliness increased. The term "loner" emerged, and the ability to endure loneliness decreased. Digital media and the Internet were able to tie in seamlessly, and alleviated loneliness...

<i>Leah Price</i> How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain<i>How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain</i>. Leah Price. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012. Pp. vii+350.

Hegel's philosophy can be uriderstood as the result of his insatisfaction in relation to the form of freedom achieved in the Modernity wich is adopted by classical liberalism. This article intends to show a communitarian conception of freedom (also called positive freedom) defended by Hegel, in opposition to the individualist liberal conception (negative freedom). However, when the freedom is rooted in the ethical-political community (Sittlichkeif), the individual freedom is not denied. On the contrary, this freedom - called subjective by Hegel and accom- plished by Modernity - is a constituent feature of the very idea of freedom.

Education is characteristically either considered as the apolitical transmission of knowledge or, more politically, as the formation of citizens. A more fluid relation between education and politics was imagined in the ancient world and was to some extent recapitulated in the eighteenth century Enlightenment. It has since, however, collapsed one of two directions: an instrumentalised model of education, supported by the state, and supporting it in turn, with a stress on individual freedom; or a Romantic vision of education, represented by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, which favours the ‘natural’ individual over the socialised citizen. Both work with a structure shorn of transcendence. In contrast, the church offers a unique angle on education, based upon meeting the human being in his or her particularity, where what is spontaneous and arises from within, and what is traditional and imparted from without, are acknowledged to have a kinship with proceeds from their relation to the creator.

&lt;p&gt;The sentimental novel and the struggle for citizenship: Rousseau&amp;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;Julie &lt;/em&gt;and Sta&amp;euml;l&amp;rsquo;s&lt;em&gt; Delphine&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The tragic fates of a great number of women in sentimental novels of the eighteenth century can be viewed against the background of classic liberal theory. They provide examples of how individual freedom and restraint in the name of common good can be reconciled. Faced with the impossible choice between a life guided by the principle of love and that of virtue, women often choose self-sacrifice as a means of preserving a sense of individuality in the face of the demands of public universality. The epistolary novels, &lt;em&gt;Julie ou La Nouvelle H&amp;eacute;lo&amp;iuml;se &lt;/em&gt;(1761) of Jean Jacques Rousseau and the &lt;em&gt;Delphine &lt;/em&gt;(1802) of Germaine de Sta&amp;euml;l, present two rather different treatments of this problem. Rousseau&amp;rsquo;s Julie is a woman whose unquenchable desire transforms her into a prototype of female unreliability not worthy of societal recognition. Sta&amp;euml;l&amp;rsquo;s Delphine, in turn, unmasks a ruthless and unprincipled society which prohibits her from becoming its full-fledged member.&lt;/p&gt;

Questions about drink — how it is used, how it should be regulated, and the social risks it presents — have been a source of sustained and heated dispute in recent years. This book puts these concerns in historical context by providing a detailed and extensive survey of public debates on alcohol from the introduction of licensing in the mid-sixteenth century through to recent controversies over 24-hour licensing, binge drinking, and the cheap sale of alcohol in supermarkets. In doing so, it shows that concerns over drinking have always been tied to broader questions about national identity, individual freedom, and the relationship between government and the market. The book argues that in order to properly understand the cultural status of alcohol, we need to consider what attitudes to drinking tell us about the principles that underpin our modern, liberal society. It presents a wide-ranging guide to the social, political, and cultural history of alcohol in England, covering areas including law, public policy, medical thought, media representations, and political philosophy.

Treating counter-disinformation activities as a discursive practice producing knowledge in specific cultural and historical contexts, this article brings a vital cultural studies perspective to an incipient Critical Disinformation Studies agenda. At the same time, it cautions against inadvertently aligning that agenda with the ‘bad faith’, right-wing populist critique of counter-disinformation practices, acknowledging their genuine potential to enhance democratic culture. It proceeds by interrogating the communicative strategies informing the proliferating Western counter-disinformation initiatives which have mushroomed in response to what is widely perceived to be one of democracy’s most potent threats, and which border on a ‘moral panic’ serving to conceal key ideological tensions. Grounded in Critical Discourse Analysis methods, a close reading of mission statements and related materials from the websites of four leading counter-disinformation units demonstrates how these texts interweave three functions – identity construction, performativity, and representation – to generate the overarching ‘discursive formation’ or ‘articulation’ constituting counter-disinformation as modern liberal democracy’s core, but also exposing its fault lines. Specifically, it shows that a failure to reconcile competing accounts of truth (as scientific rationality and normative value) indexes deeper contradictions pitting the liberal emphasis on individual freedom and capitalist efficiency against the democratic prioritizing of popular power, dispassionate observation against civic participation, and the promotion of transparency against the creeping power of surveillance. It concludes that the absolutist epistemology – a vestige of disinformation’s Cold War conceptual origins – designed to cover over these paradoxes masks the complex roles played by truth and deception in politics, thereby hindering the emergence of alternative, oppositional forms of knowledge capable of embracing truth in its radical contingency and plurality and facilitating democratic renewal.