The World We Want

The World We Want compares the future world that Enlightenment intellectuals had hoped for with our world at present. How and why are the two worlds so different? To what extent is (and isnt) our world the world they wanted, and to what extent do we today still want their world? How large is the gap between Enlightenment ideals and present reality, and why is it so large? Louden explores these questions and advances an argument that the widespread Enlightenment assumption that external institutional changes lead to internal attitudinal changes is not well supported by historical experience--and that many of the ideals advocated by the Enlightenment do not fit with human nature.