Philosophy by the Book

Eighteenth Century Philosophy

The legacy of Descartes, Bayle, Locke and Newton is widely apparent in the books on display from the eighteenth century. Often called the period of the Enlightenment, this century saw crucial developments in the theory of knowledge, morality and moral psychology in Britain and in political philosophy, the philosophy of language and philosophy of religion in France. Newton's achievement inspired a new confidence in the deliverances of natural philosophy and Newton and Locke's methodology was regarded by Condillac, d'Alembert and Hume as a kind of template which could be applied to a wide range of fields. At the same time Spinoza's religious scepticism exerted a strong influence on philosophy of religion in France and The Netherlands. The century saw the publication such philosophical classics as Hume's Treatise, Diderot's Encyclopedie, and Rousseau's The Social Contract and it culminated in the works of Kant who, in effect, marks a new way of doing philosophy and of understanding philosophy's history.