The occult sciences have attracted followers and fascinated observers since the Middle Ages. "Beyond Enlightenment" examines the social, political, and metaphysical doctrines of Martinism, a French occultist movement and offshoot of Freemasonry that flourished from the late eighteenth century to the[...]
This book explores the French Enlightenment's use of cross-cultural comparisons-particularly the figures of the Chinese mandarin and American and Polynesian savage-to praise of critique aspects of European society and to draw general conclusions regarding human nature, natural law, and the rise and [...]