Birth of the Modern Mind : The Intellectual History of the 17th and 18th Centuries
Course Lecture Titles Introduction-Intellectual History and Conceptual Change The Dawn of the 17th Century-Aristotelian Scholasticism The New Vision of Francis Bacon The New Astronomy and Cosmology Descartes's Dream of Perfect Knowledge The Specter of Thomas Hobbes Skepticism and Jansenism-Blaise Pascal Newton's Discovery The Newtonian Revolution John Locke-The Revolution in Knowledge The Lockean Moment Skepticism and Calvinism-Pierre Bayle The Moderns-The Generation of 1680-1715 Introduction to Deism The Conflict Between Deism and Christianity Montesquieu and the Problem of Relativism Voltaire-Bringing England To France Bishop Joseph Butler and God's Providence The Skeptical Challenge to Optimism-David Hume The Assault upon Philosophical Optimism-Voltaire The Philosophes-The Triumph of the French Enlightenment Beccaria and Enlightened Reform Rousseau's Dissent Materialism & Naturalism-The Boundaries of the Enlightenment