Enlightenment and the rights of man

Vincenzo Ferrone has written extensively on the Enlightenment and Ancien régime Europe. He has taught and held fellowships at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, and the Collège de France in Paris. He is currently Professor of Modern History at the University of Turin.

• AcknowledgementsPreface to the English translationIntroduction: why did the Enlightenment in the Western world discover the rights of man, and what are those rights?                                                I. From natural law to the natural rights of the individualChapter 1: The historiographical debate and the discontinuity of the EnlightenmentChapter 2: The metamorphosis of ancient natural lawChapter 3: Modern natural law as the ‘science of morality’Chapter 4: Natural law and ‘the crisis of the European mind’: Jean BarbeyracChapter 5: The return of Antigone: freedom of conscience and the limits of sovereigntyChapter 6: The person as autonomous and conscious individual: John LockeChapter 7: From duties to rights: the Enlightenment discovery of the natural right to the pursuit of happinessII. From natural rights to the rights of man as moral and political rightsChapter 8: The epistemological break: Diderot and HumeChapter 9: The question of Rousseau Chapter 10: The politicisation of natural rights: legislation and reform in Montesquieu, Helvétius and BeccariaChapter 11: The political neutralisation of rights: Wolff, Hume, Ferguson, Smith, BlackstoneChapter 12: The Neapolitan school of natural law and the rights of man: Vico and GenovesiChapter 13: The new ‘science of legislation’ of the rights of man: Filangieri and PaganoIII. The Late Enlightenment: the rights of man and the political struggle against the Ancien régimeChapter 14: Public opinion and the defence of man: Voltaire, Diderot and physiocracyChapter 15: The ‘performance’ of the rights of man in France between art and politicsChapter 16: The politicisation of the Republic of Letters in Germany: freemasonry and the rights of manChapter 17: The Bavaria Illuminati, the rights of man and the end of the Late EnlightenmentConclusion: towards a history of the Enlightenment and the rights of man as an unfinished project and a laboratory of modernityBibliographyIndex

'Ferrone’s perspective is broadly cosmopolitan, and alongside more familiar French, German, and British figures, he highlights the role of Neapolitan Enlightenment thinkers, often neglected outside Italy, from Giambattista Vico to Gaetano Filangieri. This dense, erudite tome is not for casual readers but is an invaluable reference for scholars.'D. A. Harvey, CHOICE