num_pages: 528
description: One of our most renowned and brilliant historians takes a fresh look at the revolutionary intellectual movement that laid the foundation for the modern world. Liberty and equality. Human rights. Freedom of thought and expression. Belief in reason and progress. The value of scientific inquiry. These are just some of the ideas that were conceived and developed during the Enlightenment and which changed forever the intellectual landscape of the Western world. Spanning hundreds of years of history Anthony Pagden traces the origins of this seminal movement showing how Enlightenment concepts directly influenced modern culture making possible a secular tolerant and above all cosmopolitan world. Everyone can agree on its impact. But in the end just what was Enlightenment? A cohesive philosophical project? A discrete time period in the life of the mind when the superstitions of the past were overthrown and reason and equality came to the fore? Or an open-ended intellectual process a way of looking at the world and the human condition that continued long after the eighteenth century ended? To address these questions Pagden introduces us to some of the unforgettable characters who defined the Enlightenment including David Hume the Scottish skeptic who advanced the idea of a universal science of man; Franois-Marie Arouet better known to the world as Voltaire the acerbic novelist and social critic who challenged the authority of the Catholic Church; and Immanuel Kant the reclusive German philosopher for whom the triumph of a cosmopolitan world represented the final stage in mankinds evolution. Comprehensive in his analysis of this heterogeneous group of scholars and their lasting impact on the world Pagden argues that Enlightenment ideas go beyond the empire of reason to involve the full recognition of the emotional ties that bind all human beings together. The human science developed by these eminent thinkers led to a universalizing vision of humanity a bid to dissolve the barriers past generations had attempted to erect between the different cultures of the world. A clear and compelling explanation of the philosophical underpinnings of the modern world The Enlightenment is a scintillating portrait of a period a critical moment in history and a revolution in thought that continues to this day.Praise for Anthony Pagdens Worlds at War winner of the Washington Institute Book Prize Bold panoramic and highly readable at times a page-turner.The New York Times Book Review A masterpiece of stunning scope readability and relevance. Worlds at War makes epic battles of the past come alive as illuminations of what is happening today in Iraq Iran and Afghanistan.Strobe Talbott author of The Great Experiment A grand synthesis of military and intellectual history political philosophy and theology Worlds at War delivers the old-fashioned pleasures of vivid prose and lively narration.Newsday Absorbing . . . Pagden writes smart fluent lively prose. His book is a pleasure to read.The Houston Chronicle Timely and provocative . . . enlightening.The Plain DealerFrom the Hardcover edition.
language: None
title: The Enlightenment: And Why It Still Matters
publisher: Random House