The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy

“Vivid and illuminating ... Gottlieb's highly readable book can be recommended as an engaging personal introduction to some of our most brilliant moral and intellectual ancestors.”
Thomas Nagel, New York Review of Books
 
“Gottlieb often makes fun of his philosophers, but gently, as a way of bringing us closer to them, and they emerge as brilliant, vulnerable humans rather than monsters of any kind…a great achievement.”
Michael Wood, The New York Times
 
“An elegant journey through modern philosophy with a humane, witty and expert guide.”
K. Anthony Appiah, New York University
 
“Myths get their comeuppance in this well-written and fast-moving book.”
Jonathan Rée, The Guardian
 
“He wears his learning lightly with an engaging and entirely comprehensible sequence of crystal-clear paragraphs. ... His prose is as witty as it is punctilious, peppered with clever, memorable lines.”
​Julian Baggini, Financial Times

The author of the celebrated The Dream of Reason vividly explains the rise of modern thought from Descartes to Rousseau

Amazon

Amazon UK

I read it so you don’t have to: buy audiobook version narrated by the author

Selected reviews in full:

• “In defence of reason”  
  Julian Baggini, Financial Times
  26th August 2016

• “Are we really so modern?”
  Adam Kirsch, New Yorker
  29th August 2016

 

• “Seeing the light”
  ​Unsigned, The Economist
  ​ 3rd September 2016

 

• “What exactly did we learn during the age of reason?”
  Michael Wood, New York Times Sunday Book Review
  9th September 2016

 

• “How they wrestled with the new”
  Thomas Nagel, New York Review of Books
  29th September 2016
  
  My reply to Nagel, and his rejoinder. (Download) 

 

• “Is philosophy over?”
  Jonathan Ree, The Guardian
  5th October 2016