The Portable Enlightenment Reader [Paperback]

The Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, also called the Age of Reason, was so named for an intellectual movement that shook the foundations of Western civilization. In championing radical ideas such as individual liberty and an empirical appraisal of the universe through rational inquiry and natural experience, Enlightenment philosophers in Europe and America planted the seeds for modern liberalism, cultural humanism, science and technology, and laissez-faire Capitalism This volume brings together works from this era, with more than 100 selections from a range of sources. It includes examples by Kant, Diderot, Voltaire, Newton, Rousseau, Locke, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, and Paine that demonstrate the pervasive impact of Enlightenment views on philosophy and epistemology as well as on political, social, and economic institutions.Notes to Introduction
Suggestions for Further Reading
Chronological Table

Part One: The Enlightenment Spirit: An Overview

What is Enlightenment?
Kant
The Human Mind Emerged from Barbarism
d’Alembert
“Encyclopédie”
Diderot
Definition of aPhilosophe
Dumarsais
Le mariage de Figaro
Beaumarchais
The Magic Flute
Mozart
The Future Progress of the Human Mind
Condorcet

Part Two: Reason and Nature

The New Science
Bacon
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
Newton
The New Physics
Cotes
On Bacon and Newton
Voltaire
The Rat
Buffon
The Utility of Science
Condorcet
The Organization of Scientific Research
Priestley
Letter to Joseph Priestley
Franklin

Part Three: Reason and God

On Superstition and Tolerance
Bayle
A Letter Concerning Toleration
Locke
On Enthusiasm
Shafteslı