Second Treatise of Government

Locke argues that the mind starts as a blank slate and that all our ideas come from experience. The founding text of British empiricism, complete in four books.

John Locke

Voltaire's letters from exile praise English tolerance, Newton and Locke, and were burned in Paris for it. Henry Morley's edition, with an introduction.

Voltaire

Hume's sharpest book asks how we know cause and effect, and why miracles are so hard to believe. A short, readable way into skepticism.

David Hume

Rousseau explains what makes a government legitimate, starting from one of philosophy's most famous lines: man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. Includes an introduction and a bibliography.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The short essay that gave the Enlightenment its motto: dare to know. Our own Project Aldus edition, a few pages you can read in one sitting.

Immanuel Kant