The Problem of Being Modern, Or, The German Pursuit of Enlightenment from Leibniz to the French Revolution

Book excerpt: In The Problem of Being Modern, Thomas P. Saine provides a lucid introduction to German thought in the eighteenth century and the struggle of Enlightenment philosophers and writers to come to grips with the profound philosophical and theological implications of new scientific developments since the seventeenth century. He concentrates on those points at which the essential modernity and the secular viewpoint of the Enlightenment conflicted with traditional thought structures rooted in the religious world view that governed attitudes and behavior far into the eighteenth century.