Maurizio Valsania Limits of Optimism

Annotation

<p><p><i>The Limits of Optimism</i> works to dispel persistent notions about Jeffersons allegedly paradoxical and sphinx-like quality. Maurizio Valsania shows that Jeffersons multifaceted character and personality are to a large extent the logical outcome of an anti-metaphysical, enlightened, and humility-oriented approach to reality. That Jeffersons mind and priorities changed over time and in response to changing circumstances indicates neither incoherence, hypocrisy, nor pathology.</p><p>Valsanias reading of Jefferson, the Enlightenment, and negativity helps to make sense of the many paradoxes typically associated with that eighteenth-century thinker. At the same time, it provides a corrective to the common though erroneous equation of Enlightenment thinking with rationalism and shallow optimism.</p></p>