The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy Audiobook (Free)

The author of the classic The Dream of Reason vividly explains the rise of contemporary thought.

Western philosophy is currently two-and-a-half millennia outdated, but much of it came in only two staccato bursts, each lasting no more than 150 years. In his landmark survey of Western beliefs in the Greeks to the Renaissance, The Dream of Cause, Anthony Gottlieb documented the 1st burst, which emerged in the Athens of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Today, in The Imagine Enlightenment, Gottlieb expertly about The Imagine Enlightenment: The Rise of Contemporary Philosophy navigates another great explosion of idea, 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 from the France Revolution-Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume all produced their mark. The Imagine Enlightenment tells their tale and that of the birth of contemporary philosophy.

Seeing that Gottlieb explains, each one of these men were amateurs: none had much to do with any university. They tried to fathom the implications of the brand new science and of religious upheaval, which led them to issue traditional teachings and attitudes. What does the advance of science entail for our understanding of ourselves and for our concepts of God? How should a federal government deal with spiritual diversity-and what, actually, is government for? Such queries remain our questions, which explains why Descartes, Hobbes, and others are still pondered today.

Yet for the reason that we still wish to listen to them that we can easily get these philosophers wrong. It really is tempting to think they speak our language and live in the world; but to comprehend them properly, we must step back to their sneakers. Gottlieb places listeners in the thoughts of these frequently misinterpreted statistics, elucidating the annals of their instances and the development of scientific concepts while engagingly explaining their quarrels and evaluating their legacy in exciting prose.

With chapters concentrating on Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Pierre Bayle, Leibniz, Hume, Rousseau, and Voltaire-and many walk-on parts-The Dream of Enlightenment creates a sweeping account of what the Enlightenment amounted to, and just why we are still in its debt. “A exciting collective portrait of daring intellectuals…The Enlightenment, the author convincingly asserts, set the bottom for toleration of religious dissent, scientific progress, and the dismantling of feudalism. Engaging, available, and helpful.”-Kirkus Reviews