Enlightenment: Reason, Tolerance, and Humanity

by James Schmidt

The Enlightenment stands at the threshold of the modern age. It elevated the natural sciences to the preeminent position they enjoy in modern culture. It inaugurated a skepticism toward tradition and authority that decisively shaped modern attitudes in religion, morality, and politics. And it gave birth to a vision of history that saw man, through the unfettered use of his own reason, at last escaping that state of “immaturity” to which superstition, prejudice, and dogma had condemned him. The world in which we live is, for better or worse, in large part the result of the Enlightenment. This course will explore this remarkable period. It will discuss the work of such influential thinkers as Voltaire, John Locke, Denis Diderot, Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, and Benjamin Franklin. It will also spend some time with less well-known, but no less influential, figures such as Joseph Priestly—a clergyman, scientist, and philosopher who was one of the most passionate defenders of the American Revolution in England—and the remarkable John Toland, a man whose writings on religion changed the way many Europeans thought about the Scriptures. The Enlightenment involved more than simply books and ideas. To understand the Enlightenment we need to look not just at what people wrote but also at how they lived. During the eighteenth century, they began to congregate in coffeehouses, where they read newspapers, discussed politics, and created something known as “public opinion.” Others of them began to meet in societies that were dedicated to the advancement of the sciences and there they explored how science might be put to work improving society. Still others began to meet in strange new secret societies—for example, the Masonic lodges that spread across Europe—where they attempted to put the ideals of equality and brotherhood into practice. From the start, the Enlightenment has been controversial. In its own day, some argued that it threatened to undermine the moral and religious foundations on which society rested. It has not ceased to be controversial. In our day, some have charged that many of the maladies of modern societies can be traced to its shallow rationalism. This course offers a more balanced assessment of the Enlightenment, considering both its achievements and its shortcomings and focusing not only on its most important intellectual achievements but also on the strange and often colorful characters who populated it.
- From the Publisher

Genres: History, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Politics

8 pages, Audiobook

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Kevin Stilley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 14 lecture series and accompanying course guide is substantive and interesting; however, it is not comprehensive, and does not adequately address the socio-geographical differences of the Enlightenment. I do recommend it, you will benefit from it, but do not come to it with expectations beyond the actual scope of the work.

[Hank Pharis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a pretty good overview of the Enlightenment. There were a lot of clarifying things for me. The biggest surprise was how the Enlightenment spread through early Coffee houses.

(Note: I'm stingy with stars. For me 2 stars means a good book. 3 = Very good; 4 = Outstanding {only about 5% of the books I read merit this}; 5 = All time favorites {one of these may come along every 400-500 books})

[Samuel R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this.

Beware though... you might not like this if you are not a fan of college lectures, that is what this is. But the reader, (Schmidt), does better than many of the lecturers that I have sat through in that he has an engaging voice and the topic is one that I very much enjoyed.

Thanks to this lecture, I have decided to pull up a few more items for reading, namely, more about Thomas Paine, whom I really had never given much thought to until listening to this lecture.

[Sami Albanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good review of the enlightenment. The lectures are deficient in making connections between the intellectual development, the historical events, and social and economic changes that were happening simultaneously. I think that enlightenment in essence of people mind, productive forces in society, power structures, political thought, reexamination of religious beliefs, and changes in the power structure. All of these are dialectically intertwined to create a massive acceleration in the rate of change of science, technology, mathematics, engineering, social customize, sociology, philosophy etc. The main way-points, the historical events, in that transformation are the great revolution the UK, US, and France. The book stops shortly after the French revolution. The process has not stopped until now.

[LemontreeLime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent audiobook overview of a major historical epoch, with many satisfying side trips. I never realized how coffeehouses, the illicit trading of books, scientific societies (and secret ones), and even the encyclopedia of Diderot had so much impact on the modern world.

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very disappointing to me in it's coverage of the subject.

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

Much more a theoretical history of the beginning of the Enlightenment Era as opposed to the Era itself.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very enjoyable. It made me realize how much the Enlightenment influences our current age.