Description: The author of the classic The Dream of Reason vividly explains the rise of modern thought from Descartes to Rousseau.In The Dream of Enlightenment, Anthony Gottlieb takes the story of philosophy through the century and a half when a string of amateurs, including Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Hume, and Rousseau, remade Western philosophy in the wake of religious upheaval and the rise of Galilean science.What does the new science mean for our understanding of ourselves and of God? How should one deal with religious diversity? These questions remain our questions, but the thinkers who first asked them did not live in our world. The Dream of Enlightenment steps back into the shoes of these frequently misunderstood philosophers, lucidly explains their arguments, and assesses the Enlightenment's legacy.
Brief description:
Anthony Gottlieb was the executive editor of the Economist from 1984 until 2006. He studied philosophy at Cambridge University and University College, London, and has been a visiting fellow at Harvard University. He has written articles and book reviews for the New York Times. He is a visiting scholar at New York University and a fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities.
Review Quotes:
"Wondrously perceptive and exceptionally well written, The Dream of Enlightenment not only provides a key account of the Enlightenment philosophers but also inspires us to consider a new enlightenment that could fundamentally transform our own world as much as it did theirs."
-- "Edward O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author"