Torchbearer of Freedom ― The Influence of Richard Price on 18th Century Thought
商品資訊
商品簡介
A bronze inscription in the public library of Bridgend calls Richard Price "Philosopher. Preacher. Actuary. Cfaill Dynolryw" [Friend of Humanity]. He was all these and something more. Son of a Welsh Presbyterian of Calvinistic leaning, Richard Price was educated for the ministry. That he belonged in the best of Dissenting tradition was exhibited at an early age in his own interest in Arianism, an interest fostered by the academy at Pentwyn where he studied. Here he met the works of Samuel Clarke, which thoroughly aroused the ire of his father.
Richard Price did not cringe in the face of hostile public opinion when events temporarily brought his principles into unpopularity. More than most of his liberal contemporaries, he was truly a "torchbearer of freedom." His first book was an attack on the empiricism of Locke, however, Richard Price intended no denial of other aspects of Locke's thought. An abiding faith in human reason, in free will, and in the value of education and science, with the consequent distrust of tyranny of any variety, all show that Price was not in revolt against the leading philosophical trends of his age. Rather he sought to place these values on a firm moral basis.
In association with many of the great spirits of the age, Joseph Priestley, Benjamin Franklin, Adam Smith, John Howard, the Younger Pitt, and Turgot, among others, he moved from moral philosophy to mathematics (an area in which he made many advances in statistics) and from there to political economy. His contribution in this latter respect was twofold. There was his enormous influence in drawing attention to the problem of the national debt of England and suggesting the Sinking Fund scheme that Pitt finally introduced. And there was his interest in and encouragement of the independence of America. In 1778 the Continental Congress voted to invite Price to take up American citizenship and offered to pay his expenses if he chose to move.
The life of Richard Price is an example of the power of the human spirit to shape the course of history.
作者簡介
Carl B. Cone is professor of history at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of Burke and The Nature of Politics, volumes I and II, The University of Kentucky: A Pictorial History, and the editor of Hounds in the Morning: Sundry Sports of Merry England.
您曾經瀏覽過的商品
購物須知
外文書商品之書封，為出版社提供之樣本。實際出貨商品，以出版社所提供之現有版本為主。部份書籍，因出版社供應狀況特殊，匯率將依實際狀況做調整。
無庫存之商品，在您完成訂單程序之後，將以空運的方式為你下單調貨。為了縮短等待的時間，建議您將外文書與其他商品分開下單，以獲得最快的取貨速度，平均調貨時間為1~2個月。
為了保護您的權益，「三民網路書店」提供會員七日商品鑑賞期(收到商品為起始日)。
若要辦理退貨，請在商品鑑賞期內寄回，且商品必須是全新狀態與完整包裝(商品、附件、發票、隨貨贈品等)否則恕不接受退貨。