The Britannica Guide to The Ideas That Made the Modern World

The Britannica Guide to The Ideas That Made the Modern World The origins of Liberty, the Rights of Man, Modern Science, and evolution – and why they matter today

“The Enlightenment” of the eighteenth century laid the foundations for much that informs the democratic ideals of modern societies.

Philosophers, scientists, and theorists from England, France, and the Netherlands – Isaac Newton, John Locke, David Hume, Voltaire, 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?

The Britannica Guide to Ideas that Made the Modern World 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 Encyclopйdie to the American Declaration of Independence, the foundations of modern capitalism, and the Bill of Rights. With an introduction to A.C. Grayling, this clear, thought-provoking, and accessible book uncovers the roots of modern society.