The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy

This is a delightful book. Gottlieb's "The Dream of Reason" is a lucid, very well-written discussion of philosophy from the pre-Socratic philosophers to about the 17th Century. "The Dream of Enlightenment" takes up the story and covers the extremely important period from Descartes to Rousseau. As with "The Dream of Reason" this is a remarkably well-written book that provides clear, perceptive discussions of some of the most important thinkers in human history. Mr. Gottlieb has a true gift for taking very complex ideas and presenting them to the reader in a way that is remarkably easy to understand. I'm pretty familiar with the philosophers discussed in "The Dream of Enlightenment," but, as I discovered while reading "The Dream of Reason," there are many things I thought I knew which were, unfortunately, wrong. I've learned and unlearned quite a bit from reading these two books. In particular, I have always found Hume to be a difficult thinker to understand. I found Gottlieb's discussion of Hume to be extremely useful. I now intend to go back and re-read Hume's major works because I am now in a much better position to understand them. I also discovered, while reading "The Dream of Enlightenment" that I did not truly understand Rousseau correctly. I had underestimated Rousseau as a thinker, and thanks to Mr. Gottlieb, I now know better. The preface to this book indicates that a third book will follow that will take up the discussion from Rousseau up to our times. I look forward to the final book of this outstanding trilogy and have no doubt I will be delighted with Mr. Gottlieb's discussion of such important thinkers as Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Sartre. It ought to be fun. And speaking of fun, both "The Dream of Reason" and "The Dream of Enlightenment" are wonderfully witty. (I'm pretty sure that no previous discussion of Western philosophy alludes to Monty Python's "Life of Brian"!) If the third book in this series comes close to being as useful and lucid as the first two books, Gottlieb's trilogy will be a classic that will delight and inform generations of readers well into the future!

Beautifully written. I know that the primary sources would be too difficult for me to grasp. It's been a very long time since I had a philosophy class. Gottlieb makes these great thinkers/scientists accessible. I clearly don't know enough to say he's right about his interpretation of their ideas, especially when he says that they've been misunderstood by later philosophers, but his insights and explanations make you feel you're an insider! His footnotes are at the back of the book, which is my preference, and just like the main text, they are interesting and not at all dry. I intend reading his other books when I've figured out where I stand in relation to the ideas presented here.

Although a small book, a very erudite and informative book on the Enlightenment. Good for quick familiarity, or reacquaintence.

If this were a film, it might be called "auteur-driven." While measured, richly fact-filled and articulately insightful, you very much feel the author's presence in the book, his perspective, his subjectivity. His writing is excellent, enjoyable, a real pleasure to read. But I'm glad I've read other books about these people to round out my view of them. So be careful about taking the author's words as the judgment of history. That said, it's wonderful how the author sets their ideas, impact and personality in broad historical and cultural perspectives -- it's enriching in itself, and in the process persuasively makes the case that you can't afford to separate biography, history and culture from philosophy. I'm looking forward to reading the prequel, "The Dream of Reason."

A memorable book, tracing the rise of modern philosophy from Descartes, through Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Hume, Voltaire and Rousseau. While not delving into the greatest academic depths in presentation of the writers, he gives a good accounting of their views and the way they connected with their lives and the social and political milieu of their times. I'd recommend to any devotee of philosophy or the history of ideas.

This book deals with philosophers that lived and wrote in the late Seventeenth and early Eighteenth centuries. The works of Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza, Rousseau and Hume are exposed with emphasis in their worldviews and understandings of the role of religion in a world that was inclining toward reason. The dispute between these two chains of reasons - faith and enlightenment - is presented as a key to understand most of the works examined in the book. At the end, Anthony Gottlieb succeeds in presenting a good overview of this period in the history of ideas.

no complaints

Gottlieb delivers another outstanding book that follows up on his previous text The Dream of Reason, showcasing the development of philosophy from the end of antiquity to modern time. The book explores the philosophical theories and ideas of many great Enlightenment philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Montesquieu, and many others. If you liked Gottlieb's Dream of Reason or are interested in the development of modern philosophy from a Western, European perspective, then this is the book for you!

A well written overview of the subject of modern philosophical trends. If one has already studied the philosophers covered, such as Descartes or Hume, it's a fun read to refresh and clarify one's understanding. Or, hopefully, reading this book, a person would be interested enough to read the original works after getting them into their sights with this book.