Enlightenment Thought

"Margaret L. King has put together a highly representative selection of readings from most of the more significant—but by no means the most obvious—texts by the authors who made up the movement we have come to call the 'Enlightenment.' They range across much of Europe and the Americas, and from the early seventeenth century until the end of the eighteenth. In the originality of the choice of texts, in its range and depth, this collection offers both wide coverage and striking insights into the intellectual transformation which has done more than any other to shape the world in which we live today. It is simply the best introduction to the subject now available."
—Anthony Pagden, UCLA, and author of The Enlightenment and Why It Still Matters
 

Contents:

Chronology, Introduction

Chapter One - Casting Out Idols: 1620–1697

• Idols, or false notions: Francis Bacon, The New Instrument (1620)
• I think, therefore I am: René Descartes, Discourse on Method (1637)
• God, or Nature: Baruch Spinoza, Ethics (1677)
• The system of the world: Isaac Newton, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687)
• He searched for truth throughout his life: Pierre Bayle, Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697)

Chapter Two - The Learned Maid: 1638–1740

• A face raised toward heaven: Anna Maria van Schurman, Whether the Study of Letters Befits a Christian Woman (1638)
• The worlds I have made: Margaret Cavendish, The Blazing World (1666)
• A finer sort of cattle: Bathsua Makin, An Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen (1673)
• I warn you of the world: Madame de Maintenon, Letter: On the Education of the Demoiselles of Saint-Cyr (August 1, 1686), and Instruction: On the World (1707)
• The daybreak of your reason: Émilie Du Châtelet, Fundamentals of Physics (1740)

Chapter Three - A State of Perfect Freedom: 1689–1695

• The chief criterion of the True Church: John Locke, Letter on Toleration (1689)
• Freedom from any superior power on earth: John Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government (1689)
• A white paper, with nothing written on it: John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)
• Let your rules be as few as possible: John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)
• From death, Jesus Christ restores all to life: John Locke, The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures (1695)

Chapter Four - All Things Made New: 1725–1784

• In the wilderness, they are reborn: Giambattista Vico, The New Science (1725/1730/1744)
• Without these Names, nothing...
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