The great philosopher Immanuel Kant memorably described enlightenment as the “emergence of man from his self-imposed infancy. Infancy is the inability to use one’s reason without the guidance of another.” Kant and an array of thinkers working in the 17th and 18th centuries took themselves to be heeding the example of the scientific revolution in studying philosophical questions guided by unfettered reason. In this course, we study the varied contributions of thinkers working in and around this broad movement, with particular focus on advances in classic questions about what we can know, how, and with what certainty; the source and content of our moral obligations; and how we can order our politics for peace. In studying our authors, including Hume, Reid, Kant, and Hegel, students will gain experience engaging complex and often abstract ideas, in response to fundamental questions.