The Britannica Guide to Ideas that Made the Modern World

Discusses the people, philosophy, and history of The Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment of the eighteenth century laid the foundations for much that informs the democratic ideals of modern societies. Philosophers, scientists, and theorists - Isaac Newton, John Locke, David Hume, Voltaire, and Spinoza - asked questions we still debate: What is society? How do we know if something is truth, or not? What are man's obligations to his fellow? Where do we come from?

This Guide revisits these key ideas that range from the scientific proof for the motion of the planets in Newton's Principia, and the attempt to catalogue the entire world in Diderot's Encyclopédie to the American Declaration of Independence, the foundations of modern capitalism, and the Bill of Rights. With an introduction by A C Grayling, this clear, thought-provoking, and accessible book uncovers the roots of modern society.