This is an introductory video to the first intellectual period we'll be looking at, the Enlightenment.
In his essay "What Is Enlightenment?" (1784), the German philosopher Immanuel Kant summed up the era's motto in the following terms: "Dare to know! Have courage to use your own reason!"
It's difficult to pin down the exact dates for the beginning and ending of this movement, but 1686, the year Newton published his Principia Mathematica, is as good as any other place to start, and 1815, the year when Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, is a decent place to end.
It might help if you open the following pages in other tabs as you watch it:
