Overview

""Never has the story been told so well,"" said the New York Review of Books of Anthony Gottlieb's The Dream of Reason, an ""endlessly entertaining and frequently instructive"" (Times Literary Supplement) history of philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance. This long-awaited sequel takes the story 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.

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9780871404435

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Reviews

[A] lucid, accessible history of Western philosophy. -- Adam Kirsch - The New Yorker Gottlieb's aim, admirably fulfilled, is to help us see what older and newer philosophers have to say to us but not to turn them into mouthpieces for what we already think we know...Gottlieb often makes fun of his philosophers, but gently, as a way of bringing us closer to them, and they emerge as brilliant, vulnerable humans rather than monsters of any kind. -- Michael Wood - New York Times Book Review Vivid and often illuminating...Offers a compact but fairly comprehensive survey, along with much historical detail...Gottlieb's highly readable book can be recommended as an engaging personal introduction to some of our most brilliant moral and intellectual ancestors. -- Thomas Nagel - New York Review of Books 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, author of On Human Nature, winner of the Pulitzer Prize A rare combination of encyclopedic knowledge, clarity, and lapidary style. I have never seen a discussion of philosophy as fun to read, presented with such clarity. I spent a decade and a half waiting for this book, yet it exceeds expectation: Gottlieb has a philosophical erudition that is so refreshing in a world of narrow academic resume building. -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan An elegant journey through modern philosophy with a humane, witty, and expert guide. -- K. Anthony Appiah, professor of philosophy and law, New York University

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, author of On Human Nature, winner of the Pulitzer Prize A rare combination of encyclopedic knowledge, clarity, and lapidary style. I have never seen a discussion of philosophy as fun to read, presented with such clarity. I spent a decade and a half waiting for this book, yet it exceeds expectation: Gottlieb has a philosophical erudition that is so refreshing in a world of narrow academic resume building. -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan

An elegant journey through modern philosophy with a humane, witty, and expert guide. -- K. Anthony Appiah, professor of philosophy and law, New York University A rare combination of encyclopedic knowledge, clarity, and lapidary style. I have never seen a discussion of philosophy as fun to read, presented with such clarity. I spent a decade and a half waiting for this book, yet it exceeds expectation: Gottlieb has a philosophical erudition that is so refreshing in a world of narrow academic resume building. -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan 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, author of On Human Nature, winner of the Pulitzer Prize Vivid and often illuminating...Offers a compact but fairly comprehensive survey, along with much historical detail...Gottlieb's highly readable book can be recommended as an engaging personal introduction to some of our most brilliant moral and intellectual ancestors. -- Thomas Nagel - New York Review of Books Gottlieb's aim, admirably fulfilled, is to help us see what older and newer philosophers have to say to us but not to turn them into mouthpieces for what we already think we know...Gottlieb often makes fun of his philosophers, but gently, as a way of bringing us closer to them, and they emerge as brilliant, vulnerable humans rather than monsters of any kind. -- Michael Wood - New York Times Book Review [A] lucid, accessible history of Western philosophy. -- Adam Kirsch - The New Yorker

Author Information

Anthony Gottlieb is a former executive editor of The Economist and has held visiting fellowships at Harvard University and All Souls College, Oxford. His work has appeared in The New Yorker and the New York Times. He lives in New York.

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