THE AGE OF GENIUS

THE AGE OF
GENIUS

The Seventeenth Century and the Birth of the Modern Mind

A. C. Grayling

To the first graduating cohort of NCH: anima cultura gaudere

History is philosophy teaching by examples

Thucydides

Non est ad astra mollis e terris via

Seneca

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Seeing the Universe

2 The Epoch in Human History

PART II: A TIME OF WARS

3 The Origins of the Wars

4 The Loss of the Palatinate

5 The Mercenary Captains

6 The Edict of Restitution, 1629

7 The Swedish Apogee

8 From Wallenstein to Breisach

9 Towards Westphalia

10In the Ruins of Europe

11The Maritime Conflicts

PART III: THE CUMULATION OF IDEAS

12The Intelligencers

13The Short Ways to Knowledge

14Dr Dee and the Potent Art

15The Rosicrucian Scare

PART IV: FROM MAGIC TO SCIENCE

16From Magic to Method

17The Birth of Science

18War and Science

PART V: THE SOCIAL ORDER

19Society and Politics

20Language and Belief

PART VI: CONCLUSION

21Is It a Myth?

Acknowledgments

A Note on the Author

By the Same Author

Plate Section