Scottish Enlightenment [ Political & Moral philosophy ]
… interest in the language of politeness and urban sociability that had already been mapped in works like Joseph Addison’s Spectator (1711-12) and even Bernard Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees (1714; 2nd ed ., 1723) – texts that many educated … Humans as ‘moral beings’ could develop their moral capacity to control their action from the perspective of other spectators, to such an extent that the actor's reference group finally became not so much the real spectators of her surroundings, as an ideal or 'impartial spectator'. Following moral judgments by this ‘man within’ or …
Britishness | Commerce | Cosmopolitanism | Enlightenment | Gender | Moral philosophy | Manners | Politeness | Public sphere
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