French Enlightenment and the Emergence of Modern Cynicism

Sharon A. Stanley analyzes cynicism from a political-theoretical perspective, arguing that cynicism isn''t unique to our time. Instead, she posits that cynicism emerged in the works of French Enlightenment philosophers, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot. She explains how eighteenth-century theories of epistemology, nature, sociability and commerce converged to form a recognizably mod...