In the eighteenth century Britain became one of the centres of the European Enlightenment, a movement that emphasised reason, evidence and individual rights. The Scottish Enlightenment was particularly influential. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776) is widely regarded as the foundation of modern economics; David Hume reshaped philosophy with his work on knowledge and morality; James Watt improved the steam engine and Joseph Black isolated carbon dioxide.
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In England, Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) had already laid the foundations of modern physics with his laws of motion and gravitation. Joseph Priestley, a clergyman and scientist, isolated oxygen in the 1770s. The Royal Society in London was the centre of scientific exchange.
You may be asked who wrote The Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith), or which philosopher was a leading figure of the Scottish Enlightenment (David Hume).
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