Background
Potkay, Adam Stanley was born on January 11, 1961 in Trenton, New Jersey, United States. Son of Stanley Eugene and Barbara Marie Potkay.
(Although widely perceived as inhabiting different, even o...)
Although widely perceived as inhabiting different, even opposed, literary worlds, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) and David Hume (1711-1776) shared common ground as moralists. Adam Potkay traces their central concerns to Hellenistic philosophy, as conveyed by Cicero, and to earlier moderns such as Addison and Mandeville. Johnson's and Hume's large and diverse bodies of writings, Potkay says, are unified by several key questions: What is happiness? What is the role of virtue in the happy life? What is the proper relationship between passion and reflection in the happy or flourishing individual? In their writings, Johnson and Hume largely agree upon what flourishing means for both human beings and the communities they inhabit. They also tell a common story about the history that led up to the enlightened age of eighteenth-century Europe. On the divisive topic of religion, these two great men of letters wrote with a decorum that characterizes the Enlightenment in Britain as compared to its French counterpart. In The Passion for Happiness, Adam Potkay illuminates much that philosophers and historians do not ordinarily appreciate about Hume, and that literary scholars might not recognize about Johnson.
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("This highly recommended study manifests a sure grasp of ...)
"This highly recommended study manifests a sure grasp of political and cultural history, familiarity with current critical approaches, and a lucid and often witty style."―Choice"Potkay sees in Hume and in the period, a deep ambivalence toward eloquence. . . . While Hume is at the center of this book, much of Potkay's analysis concerns other writers, notably Pope, Thomas Gray, Sterne, and Macpherson. . . . Potkay's work is ambitious, capacious, and erudite by any standard; as a first book it is astonishingly so."―Studies in English Literature
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Potkay, Adam Stanley was born on January 11, 1961 in Trenton, New Jersey, United States. Son of Stanley Eugene and Barbara Marie Potkay.
Bachelor, Cornell University, 1982. Master of Arts, Johns Hopkins University, 1986. Doctor of Philosophy, Rutgers University, 1990.
Teaching assistant, Johns Hopkins University, 1984-1985; lecturer, Rutgers University, 1986-1988; assistant professor, College William & Mary, 1990-1996; Association professor, College William & Mary, since 1996.
(This book brings together for the first time works by fou...)
(Although widely perceived as inhabiting different, even o...)
("This highly recommended study manifests a sure grasp of ...)
(14 Lectures 7 Compact Discs)
Member American Society 18th-Century Studies, David Hume Society.
Married Monica Brzezinski, May 23, 1991. 1 child, Aaron Joseph.