Introducing the Enlightenment (Beginners)

by N/A

• Used

  Paperback
  1997

  $3.38

  In the 18th century, ground-breaking discoveries in science bought about a vast moral, scientific and political upheaval, in which the age-old authority of the church was challenged. It was thought that by means of scientific endeavor, the essential order of Nature could be systematically explained, its processes mastered and its secrets revealed, to enable man to explain the world and change it for the better. This book explains the background and implications of this momentous age. It examines three giants of the Enlightenment - Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau - and also looks at David Hume, Adam Smith, Samuel Johnson, Immanuel Kant, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $3.24

  The Enlightenment of the 18th century was not only a crucial epoch, a sea-change in human history - it was also a vast moral, scientific and political movement. Intellectuals across Europe and the New World linked up in networks of friendship, projects and debates, and began to free themselves of the authority of the church and find a sense of their own vocation, a calling to rethink the world in secular terms. This volume shows how the leading thinkers of the movement believed that by means of scientific endeavour the essential order of nature could be systematically explained, its processes could be mastered and all of its secrets revealed. The book focuses on three of the giants of the Enlightenment - Voltaire, Diderot, Adam Smith, Samuel Johnson, Immanuel Kant, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jeffeson.