6 research outputs found
Gardens of happiness: Sir William Temple, temperance and China
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this recordSir William Temple, an English statesman and humanist, wrote âUpon the
Gardens of Epicurusâ in 1685, taking a neo-epicurean approach to happiness
and temperance. In accord with Pierre Gassendiâs epicureanism, âhappinessâ is
characterised as freedom from disturbance and pain in mind and body, whereas
âtemperanceâ means following nature (Providence and oneâs physiopsychological constitution). For Temple, cultivating fruit trees in his garden was
analogous to the threefold cultivation of temperance as a virtue in the humoral
body (as food), the mind (as freedom from the passions), and the bodyeconomic (as circulating goods) in order to attain happiness. A regimen that was
supposed to cure the malaise of Restoration amidst a crisis of unbridled
passions, this threefold cultivation of temperance underlines Templeâs reception
of China and Confucianism wherein happiness and temperance are highlighted.
Thus Templeâs âgardens of happinessâ represent not only a reinterpretation of
classical ideas, but also his dialogue with China.European CommissionLeverhulme Trus
The Burgundy Circleâs plans to undermine Louis XIVâs âabsoluteâ state through polysynody and the high nobility
Louis the duc de Bourgogne (1686 â 1712), grandson of Louis XIV, was briefly Dauphin of France before his premature death from measles. Advised by a group of noted former tutors and members of the court, Bourgogneâs Circle devised a range of plans to reform the French state under his future rule. Opposing the centralising model of sovereignty pursued by Louis XIV, the Circle intended to expand government, decentralise power into the provinces, reform an ailing economy, and resurrect the fortunes of a high-aristocracy believed to have been excluded from meaningful government. The Circleâs conviction that Louis XIV had circumvented the ancient nobility by tyrannical (âabsolutistâ) means challenges revisionist interpretations of absolutism in ancien rĂ©gime France. This article will therefore test revisionist claims that âabsolutismâ did not exist in France, by assessing the contemporary opinion of the Circleâs key members. In so doing, it will reveal the divergent reform agendas of its members and contest previous historiographical notions that depict the group as possessing a cohesive ideology