Enlightenment Thought: An Anthology of Sources

"Margaret L. King has put together a highly representative selection of readings from most of the more significant—but by no means the most obvious—texts by the authors who made up the movement we have come to call the 'Enlightenment.' They range across much of Europe and the Americas, and from the early seventeenth century until the end of the eighteenth. In the originality of the choice of texts, in its range and depth, this collection offers both wide coverage and striking insights into the intellectual transformation which has done more than any other to shape the world in which we live today. It is simply the best introduction to the subject now available."
—Anthony Pagden, UCLA, and author of The Enlightenment and Why It Still Matters

Contents:
Chronology, Introduction
Chapter One - Casting Out Idols: 1620–1697 Idols, or false notions: Francis Bacon, The New Instrument (1620) I think, therefore I am: René Descartes, Discourse on Method (1637) God, or Nature: Baruch Spinoza, Ethics (1677) The system of the world: Isaac Newton, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687) He searched for truth throughout his life: Pierre Bayle, Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697)
Chapter Two - The Learned Maid: 1638–1740 A face raised toward heaven: Anna Maria van Schurman, Whether the Study of Letters Befits a Christian Woman (1638) The worlds I have made: Margaret Cavendish, The Blazing World (1666) A finer sort of cattle: Bathsua Makin, An Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen (1673) I warn you of the world: Madame de Maintenon, Letter: On the Education of the Demoiselles of Saint-Cyr (August 1, 1686), and Instruction: On the World (1707) The daybreak of your reason: Émilie Du Châtelet, Fundamentals of Physics (1740)
Chapter Three - A State of Perfect Freedom: 1689–1695 The chief criterion of the True Church: John Locke, Letter on Toleration (1689) Freedom from any superior power on earth: John Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government (1689) A white paper, with nothing written on it: John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) Let your rules be as few as possible: John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693) From death, Jesus Christ restores all to life: John Locke, The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures (1695)
Chapter Four - All Things Made New: 1725–1784 In the wilderness, they are reborn: Giambattista Vico, The New Science (1725/1730/1744) Without these Names, nothing can be known, Carl Linnaeus, System of Nature (1735) All the clouds at last are lifted: Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, The Successive Advancement of the Human Mind (1750) A genealogical or encyclopedic tree of knowledge: Jean le Rond d’Alembert, Preliminary Discourse (1751) Dare to know! : Immanuel Kant, What Is Enlightenment? (1784)
Chapter Five - Mind, Soul, and God: 1740–1779 The narrow limits of human understanding: David Hume, An Abstract of a Book Lately Published (1740) The soul is but an empty word: Julien Offray de La Mettrie, Man a Machine (1747) All is reduced to sensation: Claude Adrien Helvétius, On the Mind (1758) An endless web of fantasies and falsehoods: Paul-Henri Thiry, baron d’Holbach, Common Sense (1772) Let each believe that his own ring is real: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan the Wise (1779)
Chapter Six - Crush That Infamous Thing: 1733–1764 This is the country of sects: Voltaire, Philosophical Letters (1733) Disfigured by myth, until enlightenment comes: Voltaire, The Culture and Spirit of Nations (1756) The best of all possible worlds: Voltaire, Candide (1759) Are we not all children of the same God?: Voltaire, Treatise on Tolerance (1763) If a book displeases you, refute it! : Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary (1764)
Chapter Seven - Toward the Greater Good: 1748–1776 Things must be so ordered that power checks power, Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws (1748) Complete freedom of trade must be ensured: François Quesnay, General Maxims f