Pierre Nicole

Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole were philosophers and theologians associated with Port-Royal Abbey, a centre of the Catholic Jansenist movement in seventeenth-century France. Their enormously influential Logic or the Art of Thinking, which went through five editions in their lifetimes, treats topics in logic, language, theory of knowledge and metaphysics, and also articulates the response of ‘heretical’ Jansenist Catholicism to orthodox Catholic and Protestant views on grace, free will and the sacraments. In attempting to combine the categorical theory of the proposition with a Cartesian account of knowledge, their Logic represents the classical view of judgment which inspired the modern transformation in logic and semantic theory by Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein and recent philosophers. This edition presents a new translation of the text, together with a historical introduction and suggestions for further reading.

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. The Age of Enlightenment profoundly enriched religious and philosophical understanding and continues to influence present-day thinking. Works collected here include masterpieces by David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as well as religious sermons and moral debates on the issues of the day, such as the slave trade. The Age of Reason saw conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism transformed into one between faith and logic -- a debate that continues in the twenty-first century.++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++Harvard University LibrariesN020392The author is identified in the dedication as Pierre Nicole, with Antoine Arnauld as reviser. With 2 final advertisement leaves. Text continuous despite pagination. London: printed for William Taylor, 1723. 14],215,240-440, 2]p., plate; 12

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. The Age of Enlightenment profoundly enriched religious and philosophical understanding and continues to influence present-day thinking. Works collected here include masterpieces by David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as well as religious sermons and moral debates on the issues of the day, such as the slave trade. The Age of Reason saw conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism transformed into one between faith and logic -- a debate that continues in the twenty-first century.++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++British LibraryT066328The author is identified in the dedication as Pierre Nicole, with Antoine Arnauld as reviser. With two final advertisement leaves. London: printed for William Taylor, 1723. 12],215,240-440, 4]p., plate; 12

Les Essais de morale ont figure au XVIIe siecle, et jusqu'a la Revolution francaise, parmi les ouvrages de reflexion morale les plus celebres et les plus pratiques. Ils meriteraient a ce simple titre notre attention. Les themes de Pierre Nicole (1625-1695), ses prises de position, sont tributaires des preoccupations rigoristes de Port-Royal, sans se confondre pour autant avec elles. Dans un milieu intellectuel qui pronait les valeurs de resistance et un ideal de retraite hors du monde, Nicole se singularise par son souci de l'integration de l'individu dans une societe dont il proclame cependant l'inauthenticite. Ses considerations, tant pratiques que psychologiques, sur la civilite, sur la rencontre d'interets egoistes - le commerce d'amour-propre -, sur l'universel et legitime besoin de paix, annoncent par bien des aspects les developpements laics de l'utilitarisme. Mais Nicole reste avant tout un interprete de l'anthropologie augustinienne. Les Essais de morale en illustrent les convictions cruciales: dependance de chaque homme a l'endroit de son desir, difficulte de coincider avec ses propres valeurs, incapacite structurelle de connaitre et d'evaluer la source de ses actes. Ce volume propose un choix de dix essais, retenus pour leur caracere representatif. Tous les textes sont donnes dans leur integralite, et soigneusement etablis a partir des editions originales.