The work, which began publication in , was composed of thirty-five volumes and over 71, separate entries. A great number of the entries were dedicated to describing the sciences and crafts in detail, and provided intellectuals across Europe with a high-quality survey of human knowledge.
In the midth century, Europe witnessed an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity that challenged traditional doctrines and dogmas. The philosophic movement was led by Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who argued for a society based upon reason rather than faith and Catholic doctrine, for a new civil order based on natural law, and for science based on experiments and observation. The political philosopher Montesquieu introduced the idea of a separation of powers in a government, a concept which was enthusiastically adopted by the authors of the United States Constitution.
There were two distinct lines of Enlightenment thought. The radical enlightenment, inspired by the philosophy of Spinoza, advocated democracy, individual liberty, freedom of expression, and eradication of religious authority. Science came to play a leading role in Enlightenment discourse and thought. Many Enlightenment writers and thinkers had backgrounds in the sciences and associated scientific advancement with the overthrow of religion and traditional authority in favor of the development of free speech and thought.
Broadly speaking, Enlightenment science greatly valued empiricism and rational thought and was embedded with the Enlightenment ideal of advancement and progress. However, as with most Enlightenment views, the benefits of science were not seen universally. The Enlightenment has also long been hailed as the foundation of modern Western political and intellectual culture. It brought political modernization to the West in terms of focusing on democratic values and institutions and the creation of modern, liberal democracies.
In religion, Enlightenment-era commentary was a response to the preceding century of religious conflict in Europe. Enlightenment thinkers sought to curtail the political power of organized religion and thereby prevent another age of intolerant religious war. A number of novel ideas developed, including deism belief in God the Creator, with no reference to the Bible or any other source and atheism.
The latter was much discussed but had few proponents. Many, like Voltaire, held that without belief in a God who punishes evil, the moral order of society was undermined.
The Industrial Revolution allowed consumer goods to be produced in greater quantities at lower prices, encouraging the spread of books, pamphlets, newspapers, and journals. The ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in and emphasized the rights of common men as opposed to the exclusive rights of the elites.
As such, they laid the foundation for modern, rational, democratic societies. Although they did eventually inspire the struggles for rights of people of color, women, or the working masses, most Enlightenment thinkers did not advocate equality for all, regardless of race, gender, or class, but rather insisted that rights and freedoms were not hereditary the heredity of power and rights was a common pre-Enlightenment assumption.
This perspective directly attacked the traditionally exclusive position of the European aristocracy but was still largely focused on expanding the rights of white males of a particular social standing. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. Search for:. The Age of Enlightenment Learning Objective Identify the core ideas that drove the Age of Enlightenment. Key Points The Age of Enlightenment was a philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe in the 18th century.
There is little consensus on the precise beginning of the Age of Enlightenment, but the beginning of the 18th century or the middle of the 17th century are commonly identified as starting points.
French historians usually place the period between and Most scholars use the last years of the century, often choosing the French Revolution of or the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars —15 to date the end of the Enlightenment. The cultural exchange during the Age of Enlightenment ran between particular European countries and also in both directions across the Atlantic. The radical Enlightenment advocated democracy, individual liberty, freedom of expression, and eradication of religious authority.
A second, more moderate variety sought accommodation between reform and the traditional systems of power and faith. Individual Enlightenment thinkers often had very different approaches.
Their differences and disagreements, though, emerged out of the common Enlightenment themes of rational questioning and belief in progress through dialogue. Locke, along with French philosopher Pierre Bayle, began to champion the idea of the separation of Church and State. Secret societies—like the Freemasons, the Bavarian Illuminati and the Rosicrucians—flourished, offering European men and a few women new modes of fellowship, esoteric ritual and mutual assistance. Coffeehouses, newspapers and literary salons emerged as new venues for ideas to circulate.
The French Revolution of was the culmination of the High Enlightenment vision of throwing out the old authorities to remake society along rational lines, but it devolved into bloody terror that showed the limits of its own ideas and led, a decade later, to the rise of Napoleon. Enlightened rationality gave way to the wildness of Romanticism, but 19th-century Liberalism and Classicism—not to mention 20th-century Modernism —all owe a heavy debt to the thinkers of the Enlightenment.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The English philosopher and political theorist John Locke laid much of the groundwork for the Enlightenment and made central contributions to the development of liberalism. Trained in medicine, he was a key advocate of the empirical approaches of the Scientific The Great Awakening was a religious revival that impacted the English colonies in America during the s and s.
The movement came at a time when the idea of secular rationalism was being emphasized, and passion for religion had grown stale. Christian leaders often traveled Galileo Galilei is considered the father of modern science and made major contributions to the fields of physics, astronomy, cosmology, mathematics and philosophy. Galileo invented an improved telescope that let him observe and describe the moons of Jupiter, the Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the most powerful and influential figures of the Middle Ages.
Inheriting a vast estate at the age of 15 made her the most sought-after bride of her generation. She would eventually become the queen of France, the queen of England and The Battle of Waterloo, which took place in Belgium on June 18, , marked the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, who conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century.
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