Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud

The sale of indulgences – Johann Tetzel – differences between northern and southern Catholicism – Martin Luther – nails his theses to Wittenberg church – the Knights’ War – the Peasants’ Revolt – Anabaptists – German character of the Reformation – Calvin – Puritan ethic – sack of Rome – book censorship and the Index – the Tyndale affair – Council of Trent – Loyola and the Jesuits – Jesuits in the East – varieties of Protestantism – the cult of the sermon – Protestantism’s effects on literacy, discipline and marriage – Counter-Reformation art – the Baroque style – Bernini

23. The Genius of the Experiment

Was there a scientific revolution? – why the Muslims and Chinese never developed modern science – understanding the heavens as the most important aim of science – Copernicus – Brahe – Kepler – elliptical orbits – Galileo – the telescope – Newton – decimals – logarithms and the calculus – Leibniz – Principia Mathematica – gravity – optics – speed of light – Vesalius – Harvey – Kircher, Leeuwenhoek and microscopic life – Bacon and the philosophy of science – Descartes’ method – the Royal Society and the experiment – universities and science – the rise of scientific instrumentation

24. Liberty, Property and Community: Origins of Conservatism and Liberalism

The rise of the nation-state – absolute monarchy – Machiavelli – The Prince – Mariana and Suárez – Bodin – Hobbes – Leviathan – Locke – Two Treatises of Government – Spinoza – Tractatus Theologico-Politicus – Vico – Scienza Nuova – the invention of ‘the public’

25. The ‘Atheist Scare’ and the Advent of Doubt

The effect of Copernicus’ discovery on belief – vernacular translations of the Bible – discrepancies revealed – atheism in Greece, Rome and medieval Europe – the alternative tradition of unbelievers – Montaigne and the secular world – Galileo and the moons of Jupiter – four stages of doubt – rationalistic supernaturalism – deism – scepticism – atheism – the attack on miracles – second thoughts on the soul – the attack on Jesus – the attack on prophecy – Hobbes – Hume – Bayle – Vanini the first modern atheist – the attack on the Old Testament – the attack on Genesis – the attack on biblical chronology

26. From Soul to Mind: the Search for the Laws of Human Nature