The Age of Reasons: Quixotism, Sentimentalism and Political Economy in Eighteenth Century Britain Book

	Acknowledgments
	List of abbreviations
	Introduction: the quixotic problem	1
1	Turning authority into jest: tyrants, pedants, quixotes and enthusiasts in the early eighteenth century	32
2	Common sense, moral sense and nonsense: sentimentalism and the empirical study of invisible things	74
3	Coming to a bad end: sentimentalism, The Female Quixote and the power of interest	125
4	Seeing the general view: Henry Fielding and quixotic authorship	142
5	De gustibus non est disputandum: Tristram Shandy and "the production of a rational Being"	173
6	Laying down the general rule: Adam Smith, impartial spectators and the philosopher's trade	198
	Epilogue: "The grandsons of Adam Smith"	231
	Notes	237
	Bibliography	262
	Index	275