The Limits of Optimism works to dispel persistent notions about Jefferson's allegedly paradoxical and sphinx-like quality. Maurizio Valsania shows that Jefferson's multifaceted character and personality are to a large extent the logical outcome of an anti-metaphysical, enlightened, and humility-oriented approach to reality. That Jefferson's mind and priorities changed over time and in response to changing circumstances indicates neither incoherence, hypocrisy, nor pathology.
Valsania's 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.
- ISBN10 0813931444
- ISBN13 9780813931449
- Publish Date 3 August 2011 (first published 1 January 2011)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 28 May 2015
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Virginia Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 224
- Language English