The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy

Citation

Gottlieb, A. (2017). The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy. Penguin Books. (First published 2016.)

Chapter Summary

The Dream of Enlightenment is the sequel to Gottlieb's The Dream of Reason, which ran from the Greeks to the Renaissance. The publisher's description presents modern philosophy as one of two short "bursts" in the history of Western thought. This one ran from the early 1640s to the eve of the French Revolution, in northern Europe after the wars of religion and the rise of Galilean science. Gottlieb stresses that the philosophers were amateurs with little connection to universities. He also argues that, because we still read them as if they spoke our language, they are easily misread, and must be understood "in their shoes". The book has an introduction, a chronological chart and eight chapters, one per figure or group, each title pairing a phrase with a name, followed by notes and further reading.

Introduction

The introduction (headed "The Kingdome of Darknesse" in the contents of the 2016 edition) sets out the period and the approach, followed by a chronological chart.

Chapter 1: Starting Afresh: Descartes

Descartes as the starting point: his attempt to rebuild knowledge from new foundations in the setting of the new science.

Chapter 2: The Monster of Malmesbury: Hobbes

One of the longest chapters, according to the Library Journal review. Hobbes, including, as Publishers Weekly notes, his view that rational people would seek self-preservation and peace.

Chapter 3: A Breeze of the Future: Spinoza

Spinoza and the reception of his ideas; Publishers Weekly mentions the book's discussion of his influence on Einstein.

Chapter 4: Philosophy for the British: Locke

Another of the longest chapters. Reviewers note that it covers Locke's political thought critically, including his involvement with serfdom and colonialism and the question of where his theory of property came from.

Chapter 5: An Interlude on a Comet: Bayle

An "interlude" on the French philosopher Pierre Bayle, placed between Locke and Leibniz.

Chapter 6: The Best of All Possible Compromises: Leibniz

Leibniz, whose huge output (some million pages, Publishers Weekly notes) the chapter has to manage; its title plays on his claim that this is the best of all possible worlds.

Chapter 7: A Treatise of Animal Nature: Hume

Hume, the third of the British philosophers given the most space.

Chapter 8: What Has the Enlightenment Ever Done for Us? Voltaire, Rousseau, and the Philosophes

The final chapter turns to the French Enlightenment and to the question of its legacy, the theme the publisher's description ends on: what the Enlightenment amounted to and why we remain in its debt.

Key Concepts

Introduction and Chapters 1–4

• Philosophers as amateurs: the publisher stresses that these thinkers worked largely outside the universities.
• Philosophy and the new science: the book frames the period by the challenge Galilean science posed to traditional views of ourselves and of God.
• Reading in context: the book's method of stepping into the philosophers' shoes rather than treating them as contemporaries.

Chapters 5–8

• Religious diversity and government: among the questions the publisher names are how a government should deal with religious diversity, and what government is for.
• Reception history: the reviews note that Gottlieb traces how later thinkers received, and sometimes misrepresented, each philosopher.
• The Enlightenment's legacy: the closing question of what the movement achieved.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Ideas in their historical setting. The Library Journal review says Gottlieb unpacks each philosopher's main ideas within the context of their life and times and traces their later reception. Publishers Weekly notes how he draws on the intellectual, political and scientific developments of the period.
• Readable and economical. Library Journal praises the "delightfully economical prose", and the Economist review quoted by the publisher calls the book an entertaining introduction with a light touch that conveys the excitement of ideas. Thomas Nagel in the New York Review of Books, also quoted by the publisher, describes it as a compact but fairly comprehensive survey.
• Includes less familiar figures. A full chapter on Pierre Bayle and a closing chapter on Voltaire, Rousseau and the philosophes widen the usual canon of six great philosophers.

Limitations

• Uneven organisation. Publishers Weekly, reviewing the American edition, found that the chapters could be better organised internally and that the attempt to show how later thinkers misread these philosophers sometimes takes on too much.
• Selective coverage. Library Journal notes that Francis Bacon gets little space, so the inductive, experimental side of the period is less developed. Kant falls outside the book, which stops before him.
• Narrative, not analysis. As a history written for general readers, it explains arguments in lay terms rather than examining them step by step, so it does not replace close study of the texts.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the modern philosophy course, Gottlieb offers the narrative history: the best book here for a first picture of who these philosophers were and why their questions mattered. Garrett Thomson's Bacon to Kant covers the same figures as a study guide organised by topic, with critical assessment and discussion questions, and continues through Rousseau to Kant. Students needing help with specific arguments should use Thomson. Gottlieb is better for context and motivation.

For the primary texts on the course list (Descartes' Meditations, Hume's Enquiry concerning Human Understanding and Kant's Critique of Pure Reason), Gottlieb's chapters on Descartes and Hume are useful background. Kant has to be approached through other books. Jonathan Bennett's Learning from Six Philosophers is a demanding analytical study of Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz, best read after a narrative account like this one.

How to Use This Book

No previous study of philosophy is needed. The book suits reading over a vacation before the course or alongside the opening weeks. Read the introduction and the chronological chart first to fix the period. Then read each chapter before the corresponding unit, especially for Hobbes, Locke and Hume, who get the most space.

Because the book explains arguments in lay terms, treat it as orientation: after each chapter, turn to the primary text and to an analytical guide for the detail. The chapters on Bayle and on Voltaire, Rousseau and the philosophes can broaden essay topics beyond the standard canon. The notes and further reading at the end point to scholarly sources for following up particular claims.