The rise of modern science and a scientific view of the world and human affairs.
The precedents for the scientific breakthroughs of the seventeenth century.
Bacon and Descartes, and how they heralded both a scientific view of the world and a scientific method for establishing and testing knowledge.
Advances made in the sciences in the seventeenth century.
The tremendous gains in astronomy and physics, which reshaped conceptions of God and the world and promised concrete breakthroughs with economic benefits.
How European expansion encouraged reciprocal influences and the questioning of previous thinking on religion, language, and human origins.
The current of skepticism, and its impact on the historical sciences, law, and religious scholarship.
The philosophy of natural law and natural right, which facilitated the promotion of ideas of universalism and progress.
The ideas of Hobbes, the leading proponent of secular absolutism and one of the great theorists of state sovereignty.
The ideas of Locke, whose justification of constitutionalism was especially influential in the British colonies.
