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| The Portable Enlightenment Reader (The Viking Portable Library) (The Viking Portable Library) | 
 enlarge | Creator: Isaac Kramnick
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00 (42.37 RON)
Buy New: $12.24 (28.81 RON)
You Save: $5.76 (13.56 RON) (32%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 93931
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 704
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.4
ISBN: 0140245669
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.253
EAN: 9780140245660
ASIN: 0140245669
Publication Date: December 1, 1995
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
The Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, also called the Age of Reason, was so named for an intellectual movement that shook the foundations of Western civilization. In championing radical ideas such as individual liberty and an empirical appraisal of the universe through rational inquiry and natural experience, Enlightenment philosophers in Europe and America planted the seeds for modern liberalism, cultural humanism, science and technology, and laissez-faire Capitalism. This volume brings together works from this era, with more than 100 selections from a range of sources. It includes examples by Kant, Diderot, Voltaire, Newton, Rousseau, Locke, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, and Paine that demonstrate the pervasive impact of Enlightenment views on philosophy and epistemology as well as on political, social, and economic institutions.
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| Customer Reviews:
A good sampling June 20, 2008
The Enlightenment was the turning point that created the World as we know it. The transition from the superstition and intolerance of religious dominated society, to the modern educated (at least in theory) democratic, science based lives we enjoy today.
This book is a good collection of examples of the kinds of thinking, and the free expression of those thoughts, that was impossible, and usually fatal in earlier times. Ideas that challenged the established order, and caught on like wildfire in the coffee houses and fraternal lodges where the future leaders of society gathered.
There are more complete and more detailed books available, but for a broad introduction to many of the important sources of the Enlightenment phenomenon, this book is a great start.
 A disappointing edition February 27, 2006
13 out of 18 found this review helpful
Dr. Kramnick does a disappointing job editing the selections in this volume. I constantly found that they missed key points to the individual papers, which lend a great deal to their meaning. It is always difficult when compiling an abridged reader of this nature. What stays in? What goes out? I recommend skipping this reader, if possible, especially if you are interested in the Enlightenment. Stick with the source documents for the "whole story".
 FACINATING pure AND simple October 31, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The Age of Enlightenment, the Rise of Science, the art, and literature of the eighteenth century has always been an interest of mine. So you can imagine how amazed and elated I was when I came across this gold.
It has all the big enlightenment writers such as Voltaire, Diderot, Leibniz, Paine, Addison, Pope, Montesqieu, Franklin and many more. It gives a great run down of the wit, the result of the evolution of thought, politics, society and reason as seen in the words of these great minds.
The only thing that I didn't like about this is that there is no Hobbes, which is only a minor quibble. I just thought that since there is Descates, who is not of the eighteenth century enlightenment (17th century and dryer than dust), but a major influence (like Hobbes was included, Hobbes, who was a major link from Descartes to Locke should be included and the provacative and ENLIGHTENING words from The Leviathan should grace the pages of this indispensible book and yet another superb volume from the Viking Portable Library.
An Enlightenment Buffet July 6, 2003
43 out of 43 found this review helpful
The eighteenth century Enlightenment is one of the most interesting and exciting periods of intellectual history. The thinkers of that age had a sizable impact on concepts of science, nature, politics, religion and society. How do we become immersed in the wealth of writing of that period, however, without giving up job and family in order to read the works of the Enlightenment authors? This reader is an excellent book for novices and experienced readers alike. It is an excellent 600+ page book filled with short, pithy excerpts from the key thinkers of the period. Actually the writings go back as far as 1620 with an excerpt from Francis Bacon where he puts down the Greek philosophers and introduces what is to become the scientific method. Beccaria comes up with novel thinking on crime and punishment. Does the death penalty deter crime? How about the punishment fitting the crime instead of being meted out at the whim of some aristocrat? Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau and Paine weigh in with their political philosophy. The skeptics speak up with their religious criticisms. Manners, morals, art, war, and gender and race issues are all discussed by the likes of Mary Wollstonecraft, David Hume, Reynolds, Pope, and Bentham. Bite sized as these entries are, they give the flavor of Enlightenment thought. And, importantly for the general reader, they are all mentally digestible. You don't have to read every paragraph six times in order to get a glimmer of the authors' meanings. The represented authors are not just from France either. The best thinkers from France, Italy, Germany, the United States and Great Britain are represented.
This book is terrific for research and enjoyment June 7, 1999
12 out of 23 found this review helpful
This was the most helpful anthology when I needed to write a research paper on seventeenth century religion. It has sections for almost all aspects of life and contains various selections that truly show the Enlightenment spirit!
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