Free (DRM-free PDF) Fornuftens perversion [Danish Counter-Enlightenment Philosophy]

[ATDrake]

Fornuftens perversion: modoplysning og 200 års krig mod fornuftens herredømme (The perversion of reason: the Counter-Enlightenment and 200 years of war against the domination of reason) edited by Mikkel Thorup is a Danish-language academic collection of original source texts cum analysis of the history of ideas behind the 18th century political philosophy of Counter-Enlightenment (Wikipedia) which followed the French Revolution, free courtesy of the University of Aarhus Press.

This is their featured Danish-language Free eBook of the Month selection for March, and contains newly-translated original source texts from several key thinkers of the time period, as well as an examination of their ideas and influence throughout the centuries.

Currently free throughout March directly @ the publisher's dedicated promo page (DRM-free PDF available worldwide), and you can read more about the book on its regular catalogue page.

And this has been the (late!) selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.

Because not only does it look rather interesting in its own light for Gentle Readers who can actually read it (or kind of quasi-fake it with the help of much use of Google Translate and a Danish-bilingual dictionary), it also has the nice touch of incorporating primary source texts in a new translation for the reader to examine and draw their own conclusions, and pairs rather well thematically with their February offering about the philosophical ideas history of counter-terrorism throughout the ages.

Enjoy!

Beskrivelse på dansk
Er det sandt, at oplysning fører lige fra den franske revolution til nutidens demokrati? Ikke, hvis man spørger modoplysningen, som denne bog beskriver: Oplysningsfilosofien perverterer det, der gør livet stabilt og sandt, den forvandler mennesket til noget monstrøst, friheden til trældom og terror - og fornuften til ufornuft.

Modoplysningen er både en radikal form for oplysningskritik og navnet på en historisk periode, der strækker sig over årtierne før, under og efter den franske revolution. Denne bog giver for første gang på dansk et præcist billede af modoplysningen - og rummer nyoversatte primærtekster af de tre centrale modoplysningstænkere Edmund Burke, Joseph de Maistre og Juan Donoso Cortés.

Oplysningsprojektet er i dag er under angreb fra mange sider - lige fra radikal islamisme, konservativ nationalisme og new age-bevægelser til filosofiske modestrømninger. Men oplysningen er altid blevet sagt imod, og skal vi forstå modoplysningen også i dens nutidige former, må vi kende dens idéhistorie. Det er den, der fortælles i Fornuftens perversion.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

[B]
<snip>
for Gentle Readers who can actually read it (or kind of quasi-fake it with the help of much use of Google Translate and a Danish-bilingual dictionary)
<snip>

There's a way to use Google Translate to translate an entire book? I know that it is capable of translating words and phrases. I've been trying to find a way to translate books; I looked at Google Translate but didn't see a way to translate a book with it.

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

There's a way to use Google Translate to translate an entire book? I know that it is capable of translating words and phrases. I've been trying to find a way to translate books; I looked at Google Translate but didn't see a way to translate a book with it.

If you can copy the text out of the PDF (probably can since it's DRM-free), you can copy/paste sentences/paragraphs/whole chapters into Google translate and translate it piece-meal like that. Would take some serious patience, but doable.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Manabi

If you can copy the text out of the PDF (probably can since it's DRM-free), you can copy/paste sentences/paragraphs/whole chapters into Google translate and translate it piece-meal like that. Would take some serious patience, but doable.

Thanks. I figured that that would work, but I don't have the patience. ha

On a similar subject . . . . Sometimes I see free ebooks posted, but the posters break the book down into chapters, for instance (I feel sure that they do that to prevent the very thing that I'm about to mention). I had been wanting to find a way to combine all of those segments into a whole book again. I finally found a way to do basically that, but it is a little bit time-consuming. Not nearly as time-consuming as it would be to translate a book using Google Translate, though.

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Thanks. I figured that that would work, but I don't have the patience. ha

On a similar subject . . . . Sometimes I see free ebooks posted, but the posters break the book down into chapters, for instance (I feel sure that they do that to prevent the very thing that I'm about to mention). I had been wanting to find a way to combine all of those segments into a whole book again. I finally found a way to do basically that, but it is a little bit time-consuming. Not nearly as time-consuming as it would be to translate a book using Google Translate, though.

If they're web-based, I use a DotEpub bookmarklet to convert each chapter into an Epub eBook. Then I load the chapters into a portable version of Calibre and use the Epub Merge plugin to make them one book. Edit them a bit with Calibre's built-in Epub editor (mainly to add a cover and delete the extraneous crap the DotEpub thing adds to each chapter) and I have a book. Which I then transfer to my main Calibre library. You don't have to use portable Calibre for this, I just find it neater since I can leave stuff in it to work on later.

If they're in Epub format, I skip the part turning them into Epubs. And if they're another format, I just convert them to Epub first, then do the rest.

This takes less time than it sounds like it would most of the time. If something goes horribly wrong in the initial conversion to Epub it can take a long time. I probably should look into a better Epub book editor.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Manabi

If they're web-based, I use
<snip>

A great tip. Thanks.

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

On a similar subject . . . . Sometimes I see free ebooks posted, but the posters break the book down into chapters, for instance (I feel sure that they do that to prevent the very thing that I'm about to mention). I had been wanting to find a way to combine all of those segments into a whole book again. I finally found a way to do basically that, but it is a little bit time-consuming. Not nearly as time-consuming as it would be to translate a book using Google Translate, though.

Since you've been acquiring quite a few PDF files, you may want to try PDFtk. I've never used the GUI, but I've been using the command line tool (what they now call "PDFtk Server") for years. It's a little finicky about source files, but it works on enough to be really useful. Many PDFs lack author and title information, for example, and I use PDFtk to add them before importing into Calibre.

[ATDrake]

Just a reminder that this will probably be the last day to pick up the freebie if you haven't already.