Thomas Paine, defender of freedom, independence, and rational common sense during America's turbulent revolutionary period, offers insights into religion which ring sharply true more than two centuries later. This unabridged edition of The Age of Reason sets forth Paine's provocative observations on the place of religion in society.
Thomas Paine (January 29, 1737 (NS February 9, 1737) – June 8, 1809) was an English American author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He has been called "a corsetmaker by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination."
Born in Thetford, in the English county of Norfolk, Paine immigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 in time to participate in the American Revolution. His principal contributions were the powerful, widely read pamphlet Common Sense (1776), the all-time best-selling American book that advocated colonial America's independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and The American Crisis (1776–1783), a pro-revolutionary pamphlet series. "Common Sense" was so influential that John Adams said, "Without the pen of the author of 'Common Sense,' the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain.”
Paine lived in France for most of the 1790s, becoming deeply involved in the French Revolution. He wrote the Rights of Man (1791), in part a defense of the French Revolution against its critics. His attacks on British writer Edmund Burke led to a trial and conviction in absentia for the crime of seditious libel. Despite not speaking French, he was elected to the French National Convention in 1792. The Girondists regarded him as an ally, so, the Montagnards, especially Robespierre, regarded him as an enemy. In December of 1793, he was arrested and imprisoned in Paris, then released in 1794. He became notorious because of The Age of Reason (1793–94), his book that advocates deism, promotes reason and freethinking, argues against institutionalized religion and Christian doctrines. He also wrote the pamphlet Agrarian Justice (1795), discussing the origins of property, and introduced the concept of a guaranteed minimum income.
In 1802 he returned to America where he died on June 8, 1809. Only six people attended his funeral as he had been ostracized for his ridicule of Christianity.
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老实说,这本书的阅读体验是有些“挑战性”的,但绝对是物超所值的。它不是那种可以轻松消遣的读物,需要你调动全部的智力去跟随作者的逻辑链条。作者的句法结构非常复杂,经常使用从句和复杂的修饰语,这使得初读时需要放慢速度,甚至需要边读边做笔记。但一旦你适应了这种叙事节奏,就会发现其中蕴含的巨大信息密度。这本书的学术严谨性毋庸置疑,每一个论点都有详实的史料支撑,但它的厉害之处在于,它把这些繁复的考据,巧妙地融入到流畅的叙事中。我感触最深的是,作者对于“公共领域”兴起的分析,他详细阐述了印刷术、咖啡馆文化如何共同塑造了一种新的舆论环境,这种对媒介技术和思想传播之间互文关系的探讨,在今天看来依然具有惊人的现实意义。这本书迫使我重新审视自己所处的时代,思考我们今天的“理性”是否也正在被新的技术和信息流所裹挟。这本厚重的书,更像是一面镜子,映照出我们现代思维的根源与困境。
评分这本《理性的时代》真是让人读得心潮澎湃,它以一种近乎史诗般的笔触,勾勒出启蒙运动那段波澜壮阔的历史图景。作者的叙事功力令人叹为观止,他不仅仅是在罗列历史事件和哲学家们的思想,更是在捕捉那个时代精神的脉搏。你仿佛能亲身感受到,那些知识分子们如何挣脱神权的束缚,高举理性的火炬,照亮未知的领域。书中对于伏尔泰、卢梭乃至康德的思想交锋,描绘得尤为精彩,那种思想的碰撞犹如火花四溅,直接点燃了我对哲学史的兴趣。我尤其欣赏作者对社会背景的深入挖掘,他没有将启蒙运动视为空中楼阁,而是将其根植于当时欧洲社会、经济和政治的深层矛盾之中,使得每一个理论的诞生都有了坚实的土壤。阅读的过程中,我多次停下来,反复咀嚼那些关于自然法、天赋人权和三权分立的论述,它们不仅是历史的遗产,更是对我们当下社会结构和个人自由的深刻启示。文字的编排错落有致,时而引人深思的长句,时而干脆有力的短章,读起来节奏感极强,让人完全沉浸其中,忘记了时间的流逝。这是一部需要静心阅读、并且值得反复品味的巨著。
评分这本书给我带来了一种久违的、酣畅淋漓的阅读体验,它不卖弄技巧,而是以一种近乎坦诚的态度,剖析了西方现代性的诞生过程。作者的行文风格沉稳而又充满力量,少用华丽的辞藻,多用精确的表达,使得每一个观点都掷地有声。我尤其欣赏他对“理性”的辩证性处理,书中清晰地展示了,当理性被推向极致时,它如何可能反噬自身,导致某种程度的僵化或傲慢。这种深刻的反思,使得全书的基调保持在一种健康、成熟的审视状态,而非盲目的乐观主义赞歌。书中对启蒙运动如何影响了美国的《独立宣言》和法国的《人权宣言》的详细论证,清晰地展示了理论如何转化为行动,思想如何重塑了政治版图。这些部分写得极其扎实,充满了历史学的厚重感。总而言之,这本书的价值在于,它不仅让你了解了“过去”,更重要的是,它让你以一种更深刻、更具批判性的眼光去审视你自己的“现在”。这是一部需要细细品味、并且能让你不断提问的好书。
评分我被这本书的史学叙事方式深深吸引了。不同于一般的断代史,这本书采用了更具人文关怀的视角,它不是冷冰冰地记录“发生了什么”,而是热切地探讨“人们是如何思考的”。作者的文笔极其富有画面感,像是用油画笔描绘历史场景。例如,他描述启蒙思想家们在流亡中写下那些震撼人心的文字时的那种紧迫感和孤独感,读起来让人感同身受。这本书的结构安排堪称教科书级别,从欧洲的地理格局到思想的谱系,层层递进,逻辑严密到无可挑剔。我发现,作者在处理不同学派之间的关系时,用词极其精准,既肯定了他们的贡献,也微妙地指出了他们内部的分歧和张力,避免了将任何一个思想家“神化”的倾向。对于那些对历史细节不感兴趣的读者,这本书的魅力或许在于它对“人”的刻画——那些充满激情、矛盾和伟大抱负的个体,如何在历史的洪流中留下自己的印记。我读到最后,心中充满了对人类求知欲和探索精神的由衷敬佩。
评分读完这本书,我最大的感受是,它成功地将一个宏大而复杂的历史主题,拆解成了无数清晰、可触摸的细节。我本来以为会读到枯燥的学术论述,结果发现,这更像是一部充满戏剧张力的历史小说。作者的语言风格极其老练,充满了对细节的偏爱。比如,他对当时沙龙文化的描绘,那些贵妇们如何成为思想传播的媒介,那种精致而又充满颠覆性的氛围,跃然纸上。再比如,书中对科学革命如何催生理性主义的论述,通过对牛顿等人的侧面描写,让人明白,物理学的突破如何直接为社会哲学提供了新的参照系。这本书最妙的地方在于,它没有采取单一的赞美口吻,而是毫不留情地揭示了“理性”背后的局限性与矛盾性。作者冷静地指出,即便是最伟大的思想家,他们的理论也带有时代的烙印,甚至在某些方面为后来的极端主义埋下了隐患。这种批判性的视角,让整本书的厚重感和可信度大大提升。我尤其喜欢那种行文中的“留白”,作者抛出了问题,但并不急于给出标准答案,而是将最终的判断权交给了读者,这使得每一次翻页都充满了探索的乐趣。
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