During the 16th century, a new breed of thinker arose, equal parts philosopher and scientist, that threw off the received wisdom of the past and started afresh. In this program, Paul Guyer, of the University of Pennsylvania; Rutgers University’s Colin McGinn; and Princeton University’s Kwame Anthony Appiah and Daniel Garber address the major philosophical currents of that era—and the explosive controversies surrounding them. Bacon’s Novum Organum, Descartes’s “Discourse on the Method,” Hobbes’ Leviathan, Spinoza’s Ethics, and other germane works are cited. (42 minutes)