The Portable Enlightenment Reader (Viking Portable Library)

The Age of Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, was so named for an exultant intellectual movement that shook the foundations of Western civilization. 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 the era's classic works, with more than a hundred selections from a broad range of sources - including works by Kant, Voltaire, Newton, Rousseau, Madison, and Paine - that demonstrate the pervasive impact of Enlightenment views on philosophy and epistemology as well as on political, social, and economic institutions. 670 pages.