The Britannica Guide to the Ideas that Made the Modern World (Britannica Guide To...(eBook))

408 Pages·2008·2.14 MB·English

by  Encyclopedia Britannica

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Introducer
Anthony Grayling is Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck
College, University of London. He also often writes for the
Observer, Economist, Times Literary Supplement, Indepen-
dent on Sunday, and New Statesman, and is a frequent broad-
caster on BBC Radios 4, 3, and the World Service. He has
written a number of highly acclaimed works of philosophy and
history including Towards the Light: The Story of the Strug-
gles for Liberty and Rights that made the Modern West, a
biography of Rene Descartes and The Heart of Things: Phil-
osophy in the 21st century.
THE GUIDE TO
THE IDEAS
THAT MADE THE
MODERN WORLD
The people, philosophy, and
history of the Enlightenment
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
www.britannica.com
First print edition published in the UK by Robinson,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2008
Text © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Introduction © 2008 A. C. Grayling
The right of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. and A. C. Grayling to be identified as the
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act, 1988.
Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, and the Thistle logo
are registered trademarks of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
This eBook edition published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
ISBN 978-1-59339-227-7
No part of this work may be produced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations vii
Introduction ix
1 A History of the Enlightenment 1
2 The Scientific Revolution 38
3 Man and Evolution 67
4 Culture and Education 100
5 Economics and Industrial Revolution 146
6 The Age of Revolution: Enlightenment Politics 169
7 Philosophy, Ethics, and Religion 212
8 Key Figures: Thinkers, Writers, and Revolutionaries 251
9 Key Texts: Extracts and Further Reading 319
Further Reading 355
Index 357
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Isaac Newton, portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1689. Corbis-
Bettmann
Rene Descartes, lithograph, 19th century. The Granger
Collection, New York
John Locke, portrait, oil on canvas by Herman Verelst, 1689;
in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Oxford Science
Archive/Heritage-Images
Title page from Isaac Newton's De Philosophiae Naturalis
Principia Mathematica (1686; Mathematical Principles of Nat-
uralPhilosophy).Courtesyof the JosephRegensteinLibrary, the
University of Chicago
Voltaire, bronze by Jean-Antoine Houdon; in the Hermitage,
St Petersburg. Scala/Art Resource, New York
Rousseau, drawing in pastels byMaurice-Quentin de La Tour,
1753; in the MuseÂe d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva. Courtesy of
the MuseÂe d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva; photograph, Jean
Arlaud
viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Denis Diderot, oil painting by Louis-Michel van Loo, 1767; in
the Louvre, Paris. Giraudon/Art Resource, New York
John Wilkes, engraving from a manifesto commemorating his
fight against general warrants and for the liberty of the press,
1768. Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photo-
graph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd
Declaration of Independence in Congress, at the Independence
Hall, Philadelphia, July 4 1776, oil on canvas by John Trum-
bull, 1819; in the United States Capitol Art Collection, Wa-
shington, DC. The Granger Collection, New York
Thomas Paine, detail of a portrait by JohnWesley Jarvis; in the
Thomas Paine Memorial House, New Rochelle, NY. Courtesy
of the Thomas Paine National Historical Association
Edmund Burke, detail of an oil painting from the studio of Sir
Joshua Reynolds, 1771; in the National Portrait Gallery,
London. Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London
Mary Wollstonecraft, detail of an oil painting on canvas by
John Opie, c. 1797; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London
Adam Smith, paste medallion by James Tassie, 1787; in the
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. Courtesy of the
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh
Immanuel Kant, engraving. The Granger Collection, New
York
INTRODUCTION
The Enlightenment
A. C. Grayling
Enlightenment Values
When one thinks of the ``the Enlightenment'' one immediately
considers an historical phenomenon whose main centre of
gravity was eighteenth-century France, but which spilt across
geographical and temporal borders, in particular westward
towards England, Scotland, and North America (in which
latter place it received its fullest contemporary realisation),
and backward into the scientific, political, and philosophical
revolutions of the seventeenth century.