The Age of Reason: Europe from the 17th to the Early 19th Centuries
MIT OpenCourseWare traces how European thinkers from the 1600s through the 1800s applied the new methods of natural science and mathematics to remake society itself. The course moves through trials, art, literature, and music alongside primary readings from Newton, Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, Marx, and Darwin, tracking how scientific reasoning fed into political revolution and institutional reform across Europe and its colonies. Materials include the full syllabus, reading assignments, and lecture notes as published by MIT, structured around weekly topics that connect intellectual history to concrete events such as trials and reform movements of the period. There is no certificate, since MIT OCW publishes course materials for free self-study rather than as a graded program. The course suits anyone wanting a structured path through Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment thought grounded in original texts rather than summaries.