Download or read book The French Enlightenment and its Others written by D. Harvey and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-08-06 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the French Enlightenment's use of cross-cultural comparisons - particularly the figures of the Chinese mandarin and American and Polynesian savage - to praise of critique aspects of European society and to draw general conclusions regarding human nature, natural law, and the rise and decline of civilizations.