René Descartes: "I
think, therefore I am" (1641)
Themes to note: Progress
through questioning of traditional knowledge; extreme opposition of
physical and mental.
Joseph Addison: The
pleasures of the imagination (1712)
Themes to note:
Opposition of understanding and imagination (and thus the opposition of
knowledge and art)
John Locke: A
Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)
Themes to note: Privacy,
and the relationship between freedom and toleration
Immanuel Kant: What
is Enlightenment? (1784)
Themes to note: The idea
of enlightenment, change as progress, and conflicts between the public
and private spheres
Immanuel Kant: Perpetual
Peace (1795)
Themes to note:
International issues, the contrast of the universal and the local, the
contrast of savages and the enlightened, and the injustices of colonial
powers.