This volume brings together the era's classic works, with more than a hundred selections from a broad range of sources, including Kant, Diderot, Voltaire, Newton, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, and others that demonstrate the pervasive impact of Enlightenment views.

Part 1. The Enlightenment Spirit : An Overview -- What is Enlightenment? / Kant -- The Human Mind Emerged from Barbarism / d'Alembert -- Encyclopedie / Diderot -- Definition of a Philosophe / Dumarsais -- Le mariage de Figaro / Beaumarchais -- The Magic Flute / Mozart -- The Future Progress of the Human Mind / Condorcet -- Part 2. Reason and Nature -- The New Science / Bacon -- Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy / Newton -- The New Physics / Cotes -- On Bacon and Newton / Voltaire -- The Rat / Buffon -- The Utility of Science / Condorcet -- The Organization of Scientific Research / Priestley -- Letter to Joseph Priestley / Franklin -- Part 3. Reason and God -- On Superstition and Tolerance / Bayle -- A Letter Concerning Toleration / Locke -- On Enthusiasm / Shaftesbury -- The Argument for a Deity / Newton -- A Discourse of Free-Thinking / Collins -- If there is a God / Montesquieu -- Of Miracles and the Origin of Religion / Hume -- Reflections on Religion / Voltaire -- Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar / Rousseau -- No need of theology-- only of reason / d'Holbach -- The Progress of Superstition / Gibbon -- Unitarianism / Priestley -- Religion : my views of it / Jefferson -- Something of my religion / Franklin -- The Temple of Reason ; The Age of Reason / Paine -- Part 4. Reason and Humanity -- I think, therefore I am / Descartes -- An Essay Concerning Human Understanding / Locke -- New Essays on Human Understanding / Leibnitz -- On Mr. Locke / Voltaire -- A Treatise of Human Nature / Hume -- Man a Machine / la Mettrie -- Of Ideas, Their Generation and Associations / Hartley -- The Philosophy of Common Sense / Reid -- Treatise on the Sensations / Condillac -- Some Thoughts Concerning Education / Locke -- Children and Civic Education / Rousseau -- Education for Civil and Active Life / Priestley -- The Fable of the Bees / Mandeville -- An Essay on Man / Pope -- Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure / Cleland -- Enjoyment and Tahiti / Diderot -- Concerning the Moral Sense / Hutcheson -- The Impartial Spectator / Smith -- A Treatise on Man / Helvetius -- Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals / Kant -- The Principle of Utility / Bentham -- On Wit / Addison -- Ideas of Beauty and Virtue / Hutcheson -- Discourse on Style / Buffon -- Of the Standard of Taste / Hume -- The Sublime / Burke -- On Theater and Morals / Rousseau -- On Custom and Fashion / Smith -- The Beautiful and Sublime / Kant -- Discourse on Art / Reynolds -- Part 5. Reason and Society -- The New Science / Vico -- The Utility of History / Bolingbroke -- History as Guide / Hume -- On Progress / Turgot -- A Critique of Progress / Rousseau -- In Defense of Modernity / Voltaire -- The Four-Stage Theory of Development / Smith -- The Progressive Character of Human Nature / Ferguson -- How glorious, then, is the prospect / Priestley -- The Perfectibility of Man / Condorcet -- The Second Treatise of Civil Government / Locke -- The Spirit of the Laws / Montesquieu -- Political Essays / Voltaire -- Discourse on the Origin of Inequality / Rousseau -- The Social Contract / Rousseau -- Common Sense / Paine -- The American Declaration of Independence -- Benevolent Despotism / Frederick the Great -- Federalist No. 10 / Madison -- The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen -- The Rights of Man / Paine -- Enquiry Concerning Political Justice / Godwin -- The Royal Exchange / Addison -- Industry and the Way to Wealth / Franklin -- Of Luxury / Hume -- The Physiocratic Formula / Quesnay -- Economic Liberty / Turgot -- The Wealth of Nations / Smith -- The Severity of Criminal Laws / Montesquieu -- An Essay on Crimes and Punishments / Beccaria -- On Torture and Capital Punishment / Voltaire -- The State of Prisons / Howard -- Cases unmeet for punishment / Bentham -- Splendid Armies / Voltaire -- There never was a good war / Franklin -- Perpetual Peace / Kant -- Some Reflections upon Marriage / Astell -- Duties of Women / Rousseau -- The Fair Sex / Kant -- Women, Adored and Oppressed / Paine (attr.) -- A woman gossips much / Mozart -- Women's Education / Macaulay -- On the Equality of the Sexes / Constantia -- The Rights of Women / de Gouges -- Vindication of the Rights of Women / Wollstonecraft -- Negroes naturally inferior to the whites / Woolman -- The Difference between the Races / Kant -- Who are you, then, to make slaves / Diderot -- Bestial manners, stupidity, and vices / Long.