This volume is concerned with European philosophy from the late seventeenth cent

ury
through most of the eighteenth the period of the Enlightenment as broadly conceived.
Some apology is due for the overall emphasis on what is commonly referred to as B
ritish
philosophy . But the attention to English early Enlightenment figures, such as Ne
wton
and Locke, is easily justified, since they were important influences on the Enli
ghtenment
elsewhere. Philosophy flourished in Britain and Ireland in the eighteenth centur
y. Wales
produced Richard Price,1 while Ireland could boast of Berkeley and Burke.2 Irela
nd also
produced Francis Hutcheson, to whom Hume and the Scottish Enlightenment
owed a
considerable debt.3 The Scots in turn had a considerable influence on the Enligh
tenment
or Aufklarung in Germany, not least on the thought of Kant.4
The opening chapter focusses on the Cambridge Platonists, in whose tho
ught the
Enlightenment emphasis on reason and toleration is already prefigured. The concl
uding
chapter deals with the beginnings of the reaction against Enlightenment
concepts and
values towards the end of the eighteenth century. Enlightenment is thus something
of a
unifying concept. At the same time it should be acknowledged that his
tories of
philosophy do not always make use of it. Sometimes, rather, they use
the term
empiricism
to characterize the philosophy of the period and to contrast
it with the
rationalism of the earlier period.
There are indeed other notions that have been or might be put forward as central
to
understanding the development of philosophy in this period. For instanc
e, the
development of the laity or the use of ordinary language as the vehicle for arti
culating
philosophical ideas are possible centres of focus. Alternatively one might atten
d to the
secularization of philosophy or the growth of the demand for rational religion.
But, while
each of these perspectives can enrich our understanding of the period, serious d
istortions
can result from focussing on a single perspective to the exclusion of
others. For this
reason there are some scholars who distrust the application of any period and sch
ool
labels. Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche and Leibniz, for instance, are often cla
ssed as
rationalists ,5 on the one hand, and Locke, Berkeley and Hume as empiricists , on the
other. But critics consider that these labels distort historical realities and m
isrepresent at
least some of the individual philosophers concerned.6 There are also those who t
hink the
period of the so-called Enlightenment is too diverse to be accurately presented as
if it
were a coherent and unified cultural phenomenon.

Though I will address these doubts later in this introduction, my main purpose i
s not so
much to lay them entirely to rest as to set the scene for the indi
vidual chapters that
comprise the substance of the volume. The reader will find that some of these ch
apters
are devoted to a major figure, as are the chapters on Berkeley and Vico, or even
, in the
case of Locke and Hume, to part of the thought of an individual phi
losopher. Morecommonly, the chapters deal with two or more figures as a group.
Thus there are two
chapters on the philosophes of the French Enlightenment and a chapter
each on the
Enlightenment in Scotland and in Germany. Had space permitted there might have b
een
chapters on the Enlightenment in other countries.7 The various national Enlighte
nment
movements took place at rather different times and in widely different circumsta
nces.
This introduction will concentrate to a large extent on the Enlightenment in Eng
land.
English intellectual and political culture was much admired by Voltaire
and other
philosophes of the early French Enlightenment. Attention to it can be
a way of
announcing some of the themes of the volume as a whole and also linking together
some
of the figures dealt with in later chapters.
THE ENGLISH ENLIGHTENMENT
Defenders of what is called the Enlightenment , such as the philosophe d A
lembert,
commonly used the metaphor of spreading light to refer to the kind of intellectu
al and
cultural progress they believed in. Furthermore there was a debate in Germany as
to what
Aufklarung (usually translated Enlightenment ) was. So enlightenment was a concept
wich was establishing itself during the period as one in terms of which the avan
t garde
thought of themselves and their projects. But the phrase the Enlightenment itself
was
not adopted until the nineteenth century, when it began to be used i
n retrospect of a
period as a whole.8 Historians have challenged the extent to which, a
s had previously
been supposed, the Enlightenment can be represented as a singleEuropean
cultural
phenomenon. But there is no doubt there were important interconnections, such a
s the
English influence on the philosophes.9 At the same time the Enlightenment in Eng
land
itself, for instance, followed a quite different course from that in France.
The English Enlightenment was in some respects prefigured by Herbert of Cherbury
and the Cambridge Platonists. But it is convenient, customary and defe
nsible to fix
1688 the year of the Whig revolution as a starting-date. Until then the High Church
party had dominated. Books had been subject to censorship and religious diversit
y had
been discouraged. After the Revolution , when William and Mary were offer
ed the

British crowns, liberals had more influence in politics and the latitudinarians , a
s they
wre known, in the Church. Symbolically perhaps, Spinoza s Tractates Theol
ogicoPoliticus, which argued the case for freedom of expression in religious matters,
appeared
for the first time in English tradition in 1689. That work was published anonymo
usly and
illegally. But, by the middle of the 1690s, controversial works could be publish
ed legally.
Though anonymity was still usual, it was no secret that Locke was th
e author of The
Reasonableness of Christianity or John Toland the author of Christianity not Mys
terious.
These words were denounced as dangerous but they were not suppressed and no acti
on
was taken against the authors. Books could still be burned10 and a Blasphemy Act
was
passed by the English Parliament in 1698. Yet there was a new tolerance of theol
ogical
deviation, moderately expressed. For instance, Samuel Clarke remembered by
philosophers for his translations and defences of Newton had a successful career a
s an
Anglican clergyman notwithstanding the suspicion and even charge of heresy certa
in of
his publications gave rise to.11
Introduction
2