A.C.Grayling

During the turbulent seventeenth century science moved from the alchemy and astrology of John Dee to the painstaking observation and astronomy of Galileo, from the classicism of Aristotle to the evidence-based investigation of Francis Bacon. The old ways still lingered – witness,  for example, Newton’s life-long fascination with alchemy – but by the end of the century, ‘the greatest ever change in the mental outlook of humanity’ had arguably taken place. AC Grayling, one of our foremost public intellectuals, explains how and why this period became the crucible of modernity, in an evening which is bound to stimulate and inform.