The Enlightenment

A long argument, written during the English Civil War, asks why people should obey a government at all. Without one, Hobbes says, human life would be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

14h 50m reading time

A clear argument that government exists to protect people's lives, liberty, and property, and rests on their consent. If a ruler breaks that trust, Locke says, the people have the right to replace him.

3h 54m reading time

A printer's son tells his own life story, from runaway apprentice to famous scientist and statesman. He arrives in Philadelphia at seventeen, eating one bread roll and carrying two more under his arms.

4h 49m reading time

A short essay offers a calm, sensible-sounding plan to end poverty in Ireland. The plan is to sell the children of the poor as food for the rich, complete with serving suggestions.

15 min reading time

A short, comic novel follows a young man thrown out of a castle into war, shipwreck, and disaster. His teacher Pangloss insists, even after an earthquake, that this is the best of all possible worlds.

2h 23m reading time

A short pamphlet makes the case, in plain words, that the American colonies should break free from Britain. Published without the author's name, it calls King George III the Royal Brute of Britain.

1h 29m reading time

This book examines God, nature, and human emotions through definitions, arguments, and proofs. Its surprising claim that God and nature are one unfolds like a geometry textbook.

5h 59m reading time

A short, personal account tells how one thinker doubted everything and rebuilt his knowledge from the ground up. The one thing he cannot doubt gives the book its famous line: I think, therefore I am.

1h 28m reading time

A long, careful study asks where our ideas come from and how much the human mind can truly know. Locke pictures the newborn mind as white paper, with every idea written on it by experience.

10h 22m reading time

This essay presents a plan for lasting peace between states. Its plan follows a treaty's format, with six preliminary articles and three main articles.

2h 25m reading time

These letters describe English religion, science, and public life through the eyes of a French visitor. A visit to the London stock exchange shows people of different faiths trading together.

2h 32m reading time

Three speakers debate what nature can tell us about God in a series of philosophical conversations. Cleanthes compares the world to a machine, while Philo questions whether that comparison proves a divine designer.

2h 31m reading time

This treatise opens by examining biblical prophecy through close readings of scripture. Spinoza asks why prophets pictured God differently, comparing their visions and temperaments.

6h 47m reading time

Advice on saving money and working steadily takes the form of a speech filled with short sayings. At an auction, Father Abraham repeats Poor Richard's advice to a crowd waiting for the sale.

14 min reading time

This political treatise examines how societies form and what gives governments the right to rule. The Social Contract opens with the claim that people are born free but live in chains.

3h 55m reading time

Six linked reflections examine what we can know about ourselves, God, and the world. A piece of wax melting by a fire becomes a test of how we understand physical objects.

1h 46m reading time

This philosophical essay asks what makes an action morally right, rather than merely useful or pleasing. A shopkeeper who charges fair prices helps distinguish acting from duty from acting for personal gain.

2h reading time

This essay traces how inequality might have developed as humans moved from solitary lives into organized society. A striking passage imagines someone fencing off land and declaring it his own.

1h 47m reading time

This short scientific report describes discoveries made by observing the night sky through a telescope. Follow Galileo as he tracks four small bodies moving around Jupiter.

1h 31m reading time

This public declaration explains why thirteen American colonies chose to break from British rule. Its complaints against King George III include his refusal to approve laws needed for the public good.

6 min reading time