The Birth of the Modern Mind: Intellectual History of the 17th-18th Centuries

Overview

Course No. 447

Explore how Newton, Descartes, Locke, and other Enlightenment thinkers revolutionized science, politics, and philosophy – reshaping Western thought forever.

This 24-lecture course with Professor Kors examines the seismic intellectual shifts between 1600-1800 that created our modern world. You’ll discover how:

• Aristotelian scholasticism collapsed under new scientific methods

• Thinkers like Bacon and Newton redefined knowledge itself

• Philosophical debates birthed modern concepts of democracy, human rights, and secularism

From Pascal’s skepticism to Rousseau’s dissent, witness how ideas transformed society.

Video Lessons

Foundations of Modern Thought (Lectures 1-9)

• Introduction to Intellectual History (34 min) – How conceptual revolutions shape civilization

2. Aristotelian Scholasticism (31 min) – The medieval worldview challenged

• Francis Bacon’s New Vision (31 min) – Knowledge as power over nature

4. New Astronomy & Cosmology (31 min) – Mathematics replaces Aristotelian “qualities”

• Descartes’ Perfect Knowledge (31 min) – “Cogito ergo sum” and systematic doubt

• Thomas Hobbes’ Materialism (31 min) – Determinism in Leviathan

• Pascal’s Skepticism (31 min) – Faith vs. reason debates

8-9. Newton’s Revolution (30/31 min) – Principia Mathematica and cosmic order

The Enlightenment Emerges (Lectures 10-18)

10-11. John Locke’s Empiricism (32/32 min) – The mind as “blank slate”

• Pierre Bayle’s Skepticism (32 min) – Critiques of religious dogma

• The Modern Generation (32 min) – Rejecting ancient authority

14-15. Deism vs Christianity (33/31 min) – Nature vs. revelation

16. Montesquieu’s Relativism (30 min) – Cultural influences on law

17. Voltaire’s English Letters (31 min) – Celebrating liberty

• Bishop Butler’s Theology (31 min) – Virtue and happiness

Challenges & Legacies (Lectures 19-24)

19. Hume’s Skepticism (32 min) – Doubting natural religion

• Voltaire’s Candide (31 min) – Satirizing optimism

21. The Philosophes (31 min) – French Enlightenment thinkers

• Beccaria’s Reforms (31 min) – Modernizing criminal law

23. Rousseau’s Dissent (32 min) – Critiquing “progress”

24. Materialism’s Triumph (33 min) – Diderot and atheistic naturalism