Dream of Enlightenment

About the book

'This is a blast of fresh air' Jonathan Clark, TLS
'Thank goodness for Gottlieb' Daily Telegraph
'A joy to read' Economist

The author of the celebrated The Dream of Reason vividly explains the rise of modern thought from Descartes to Rousseau

In a short period - from the early 1640s to the eve of the French Revolution - Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume all made their mark on Western thought. The Dream of Enlightenment tells their story and that of the birth of modern philosophy. What does the advance of science entail for our understanding of ourselves and for our ideas of God? How should a government deal with religious diversity - and what is government actually for? Their questions remain...