The dream of enlightenment : the rise of modern philosophy / Anthony Gottlieb.

The dream of enlightenment : the rise of modern philosophy / Anthony Gottlieb.

First edition.

New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company, [2016]

©2016

xi, 301 pages ; 25 cm

"Western philosophy is now two and a half millennia old, but much of it came in just two staccato bursts, each lasting only about 150 years. In his landmark survey of Western philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance, The Dream of Reason, Anthony Gottlieb documented the first burst, which came in the Athens of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Now, in his sequel, The Dream of Enlightenment, Gottlieb expertly navigates a second great explosion of thought, taking us to northern Europe in the wake of its wars of religion and the rise of Galilean science. In a relatively short period--from the early 1640s to the eve of the French Revolution--Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume all made their mark. The Dream of Enlightenment tells their story and that of the birth of modern philosophy. As Gottlieb explains, all these men were amateurs: none had much to do with any university. They tried to fathom the implications of the new science and of religious upheaval, which led them to question traditional teachings and attitudes. What does the advance of science entail for our understanding of ourselves and for our ideas of God? How should a government deal with religious diversity--and what, actually, is government for? Such questions remain our questions, which is why Descartes, Hobbes, and the others are still pondered today" -- dust jacket flap.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-281) and index.

The Kingdome of darknesse
Chronological chart
Starting afresh : Descartes
The monster of Malmesbury : Hobbes
A breeze of the future : Spinoza
Philosophy for the British : Locke
An interlude on a comet : Bayle
The best of all possible compromises : Leibniz
A treatise of animal nature : Hume
What has the Enlightenment ever done for us? : Voltaire, Rousseau, and the Philosophes.

United States -- New York (State).

B791 .G68 2016