Dare to Know: The Age of Enlightenment and the Birth of Modern Reason

Join us as we explore the Age of Enlightenment, a transformative intellectual movement that swept through Europe and the Americas during the 17th and 18th centuries. Often called the "Age of Reason," this era challenged absolute monarchy and religious dogma by championing empirical evidence, the scientific method, and individual liberty,.

In this episode, we cover:

• The Roots of Reason: How the Scientific Revolution and thinkers like René Descartes and Isaac Newton paved the way for a new understanding of the universe.
• The Republic of Letters: How ideas circulated through an expanding print culture, literary salons, Masonic lodges, and the bustling coffeehouses of London and Paris,,.
• Philosophers of Liberty: The impact of giants like Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Locke, whose theories on the "social contract" and natural rights influenced the American and French Revolutions,,.
• Global Impact & Contradictions: From the Scottish Enlightenment's focus on economics to the rise of "enlightened absolutism" in Prussia and Russia, we also examine the era's complex relationship with slavery and colonialism,,.

Tune in to understand how the call to sapere aude—"dare to know"—reshaped the Western world and established the foundations of modern democracy,.