HomeBlog / Latest Newsenlightenment

  • The Grand Tour of Europe

    • December 28, 2019
    • Posted by:
    • Category: Flashbacks
    No Comments
    Listen to Professor Kathleen Burk’s highly engaging and informative 1hr 11min lecture on the Grand Tour - here.   ‘Casanova in Paris: The Shadows of the King’ is freely available here. 27 long form articles on Casanova’s life and times are freely available here.   #grandtour #europe #eighteenthcentury #enlightenment
    read more

  • Materialism

    • July 6, 2019
    • Posted by:
    • Category: Flashbacks
    No Comments
      Central to the radical Enlightenment were the ideas of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus and his philosophy of atomic materialism which rejected any role for gods in the existence and evolution of the universe.  Melvyn Bragg’s excellent ‘In Our Time’ covers the topic here in a 41-minute podcast.   ‘Casanova in Paris: The Shadows
    read more

  • The great Lisbon earthquake

    • June 1, 2019
    • Posted by:
    • Category: Flashbacks
    No Comments
      The Lisbon earthquake struck on November 1st (All Saints Day), 1755, and was one of the deadliest earthquakes in history. The subsequent fires and tsunami almost entirely destroyed the city and much of the surrounding area.  The horror and tragedy of the event provoked Voltaire to write his ‘Poem on the Lisbon disaster’, a
    read more