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”; François-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 mankind’s 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 The Enlightenment
“Sweeping . . . Like being guided through a vast ballroom of rotating strangers by a confiding insider.”—The Washington Post
“Fascinating.”—The Telegraph (London)
“A political tract for our time.”—The Wall Street Journal
“For those who recognize the names Hegel, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Voltaire, and Diderot but are unfamiliar with their thought, [Anthony] Padgen provides a fantastic introduction, explaining the driving philosophies of the period and placing their proponents in context. . . . Padgen’s belief that the Enlightenment ‘made it possible for us to think . . . beyond the narrow worlds into which we are born’ is clearly and cogently presented.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“The Enlightenment really does still matter, and with a combination of gripping storytelling about colorful characters and lucid explanation of profound ideas, Anthony Pagden shows why.”—Steven Pinker, author of The Better Angels of Our...
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”; François-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 mankind’s 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 The Enlightenment
“Sweeping . . . Like being guided through a vast ballroom of rotating strangers by a confiding insider.”—The Washington Post
“Fascinating.”—The Telegraph (London)
“A political tract for our time.”—The Wall Street Journal
“For those who recognize the names Hegel, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Voltaire, and Diderot but are unfamiliar with their thought, [Anthony] Padgen provides a fantastic introduction, explaining the driving philosophies of the period and placing their proponents in context. . . . Padgen’s belief that the Enlightenment ‘made it possible for us to think . . . beyond the narrow worlds into which we are born’ is clearly and cogently presented.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“The Enlightenment really does still matter, and with a combination of gripping storytelling about colorful characters and lucid explanation of profound ideas, Anthony Pagden shows why.”—Steven Pinker, author of The Better Angels of Our...
Reviews-
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Starred review from April 22, 2013
For those who recognize the names Hegel, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Voltaire, and Diderot but unfamiliar with their thought, Padgen (Peoples and Empires) provides a fantastic introduction; explaining the driving philosophies of the period and placing their proponents in context. In wry asides, he also offers snippets of their personal lives and interactions with each other. Padgen argues that the Reformation and the discovery of the Americas shattered certainty, causing many to reject the scholasticism of their upbringing. This led to a questioning of religion and the need for a secular state, with America as the beacon. Voltaire's friend, Benjamin Franklin, wanted to prove that, "a society of unbelievers could be just as moral as a society of the devout." Padgen also discusses the search for a "natural" culture and blueprints made for creating one in Europe. Through the popularity of Enlightenment treatises, concepts of equality and human rights were broached without recourse to religion. Some promoted the idea of a united Europe and a few brave men even espoused the equality of women, guardedly. Padgen's belief that the Enlightenment "made it possible for us to thinkâ¦beyond the narrow worlds into which we are born," is clearly and cogently presented. Agent: Andrew Wylie, The Wylie Agency. -
Starred review from March 15, 2013
Pagden (Political Science and History/UCLA; Worlds at War: The 2,500-Year Struggle Between East and West, 2008, etc.) demonstrates the breadth and depth of his knowledge and his impeccable research of the period we refer to as the Enlightenment. Lest readers are daunted in trying to follow the deep thoughts of the great writers of the 18th century, the author gently explains each outlook, theory and proposal. This was the century of philosophy, but it was also the century when the science of man--i.e., social sciences--came into being. It was Gottfried Leibniz's "best of all possible worlds." Seeking to define men and their relationships with nature, and especially with each other, led to this scientific revolution; it was an intellectual process, a philosophical project and a social movement. The figures of the period were a combination of skeptics, epicureans and stoics seeking to build a cosmopolitan world of diverse people with common interests. Pagden impressively illustrates the significant discussions that took place as these scientists, historians and other intellectuals tried to fathom man's nature and subject dogma to reason. Many readers will wonder at what they would give to be present at Baron d'Holbach's Paris dinner table with Hume, Diderot, Rousseau, D'Alembert and even Ben Franklin as they discussed religion and a nature-centered universe. These storied men of letters dutifully studied the ages of man in his journey from the beginnings of agriculture to the right of property and division of lands. Pagden serves as a knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide through this "particular intellectual and cultural movement." A book that should be on every thinking person's shelf--the perfect primer for anyone interested in the development of Western civilization.COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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May 1, 2013
This is a defense by Pagden (political science & history, Univ. of California, Los Angeles; Worlds at War) of Enlightenment thought. Although John V. Fleming's The Dark Side of the Enlightenment is the more exploratory, Pagden's is the more conservative, but both books are based on their authors' long familiarity with the age. Against the age's critics, who argue that the philosophes' hyper-skepticism and materialism undermined authority and destroyed social cohesiveness, Pagden argues that the Enlightenment was not so much a revolutionary movement as a reformist one. Enlightenment thinkers preached a broader vision of humankind, opening the possibility for talk of universal human rights, and of such a modern-day extra-national community as the European Union. VERDICT This is top-down intellectual history--Greats talk to Greats--and the cast of characters is predictable, from Hobbes and Grotius to Montesquieu, Hume, and Kant. But Pagden knows what he's talking about and his argument is worth reading in our contentious age. Heavy going at times, this solid book is not for those seeking easy popular history. It will probably appeal most to serious lay readers of the subject.--David Keymer, Modesto, CA
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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April 15, 2013
Perhaps the most significant footnote in the entire history of Western thought, muses Padgen, appeared in a 1783 journal in Berlin. The footnote asked, What is enlightenment? Answering the question is this work's project, which Padgen conducts through eighteenth-century intellectuals associated with the Enlightenment. Unlike the philosophers and theologians of the preceding Renaissance and Reformation, who engaged in rediscovery or restoration of the past, Enlightenment thinkers repudiated traditions thought to fetter human beings. Religion, law, government, and social customs came under criticism from writers who varied in the subjects they contemplated but generally were animated by belief in the power of reason to define human nature and design human society. Partly a process of demolition, as in attacks on the claims of Christianity, and partly a process of construction, as in the beginnings of social sciences like economics, the course of the Enlightenment unfolds in Padgen's presentations of major figures Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Hume, Adam Smith, and Kant. Readers interested in the origins of modernity, progressivism, and conservatism will find much to ponder in Padgen's substantive history of ideas.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.) -
The Wall Street Journal
"Sweeping . . . Like being guided through a vast ballroom of rotating strangers by a confiding insider."--The Washington Post "Fascinating."--The Telegraph (London) "A political tract for our time."
- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "For those who recognize the names Hegel, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Voltaire, and Diderot but are unfamiliar with their thought, [Anthony] Padgen provides a fantastic introduction, explaining the driving philosophies of the period and placing their proponents in context. . . . Padgen's belief that the Enlightenment 'made it possible for us to think . . . beyond the narrow worlds into which we are born' is clearly and cogently presented."
- David Armitage, author of Foundations of Modern International Thought "The Enlightenment really does still matter, and with a combination of gripping storytelling about colorful characters and lucid explanation of profound ideas, Anthony Pagden shows why."--Steven Pinker, author of The Better Angels of Our Nature and The Blank Slate "Reading Anthony Pagden's The Enlightenment: And Why It Still Matters is an enlightenment in itself. The larger-than-life thinkers and talkers of eighteenth-century Europe have been blamed for everything from taking the magic out of life to making Auschwitz possible, but here, in sparkling style, Pagden shows us not only how their ideas made mankind modern but also what our world might have been like without them. Everyone interested in where the West came from should read this book."--Ian Morris, author of Why the West Rules--For Now "Anthony Pagden defends the Enlightenment as a cosmopolitan project with classical roots and contemporary relevance. Like Kant, he argues that we live in an age of enlightenment, ongoing but incomplete, but that someday we will experience a fully enlightened age. His lucid and learned book might help to realize that hope."
- Kirkus Reviews "Pagden demonstrates the breadth and depth of his knowledge and his impeccable research of the period we refer to as the Enlightenment. . . . A book that should be on every thinking person's shelf--the perfect primer for anyone interested in the development of Western civilization."
