Full Answer
What are some interesting facts about the Enlightenment period?
Some interesting facts about the Enlightenment period are that it was caused by the Thirty Years’ War and that the Enlightenment period began in 1648. Some of the first people to take the plunge into Enlightenment were authors John Comenius and Hugo Grotius. During the Enlightenment period, thought processes revolved more around science and ...
Who started the Enlightenment period?
[5] The Age of Enlightenment, a phrase coined by the German philosopher, Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 - 12 February 1804), represents the change from antiquity to modernity, the period in history where the modern world began and science replaced superstition. [7]
What did the Enlightenment period lead to?
The Enlightenment produced numerous books, essays, inventions, scientific discoveries, laws, wars and revolutions. The American and French Revolutions were directly inspired by Enlightenment ideals and respectively marked the peak of its influence and the beginning of its decline. The Enlightenment ultimately gave way to 19th-century Romanticism.
What triggered the Enlightenment era?
- Causes. On the surface, the most apparent cause of the Enlightenment was the Thirty Years’ War. ...
- Pre-Enlightenment Discoveries. ...
- The Enlightenment in England. ...
- The Enlightenment in France. ...
- Romanticism. ...
- Skepticism. ...
- The End of the Enlightenment. ...
What was the Enlightenment period in simple terms?
The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was an intellectual and cultural movement in the eighteenth century that emphasized reason over superstition and science over blind faith.
What did the Enlightenment period do?
The Enlightenment produced numerous books, essays, inventions, scientific discoveries, laws, wars and revolutions. The American and French Revolutions were directly inspired by Enlightenment ideals and respectively marked the peak of its influence and the beginning of its decline.
What is the main idea of Enlightenment?
The central doctrines of the Enlightenment were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Church. The principles of sociability and utility also played an important role in circulating knowledge useful to the improvement of society at large.
What were the 3 main ideas of the Enlightenment?
What were the 3 major ideas of the Enlightenment? Reason, individualism and skepticism were three major ideas that came out of the Enlightenment. One person who espoused all three of these values was the French philosopher, Voltaire.
What was the Enlightenment and why did it happen?
The Enlightenment began when more individuals started to seek ways to understand the world through science and reason. Influential enlightenment thinkers who published their works are often attributed with sparking the Englightenment.
How did the Enlightenment change society?
The Enlightenment helped combat the excesses of the church, establish science as a source of knowledge, and defend human rights against tyranny. It also gave us modern schooling, medicine, republics, representative democracy, and much more.
What were two major beliefs of the Enlightenment?
We owe the Enlightenment fundamental modern beliefs. Enlightenment thinkers embraced the idea that scientific progress was limitless. They argued that all citizens should be equal before the law. They claimed that the best forms of government were those with rational laws oriented to serve the public interest.
Which impact of the Enlightenment is most important?
1 Answer. The impact of the enlightenment that is most important is the one that states that we are not a product of the divine but instead made to reason. It shaped people's minds and attitudes towards religion.
What did Enlightenment thinkers believe?
Enlightenment thinkers wanted to improve human conditions on earth rather than concern themselves with religion and the afterlife. These thinkers valued reason, science, religious tolerance, and what they called “natural rights”—life, liberty, and property.
What are the 5 values of Enlightenment?
The five core values of the Enlightenment were: happiness, reason, nature, progress, and liberty. Using logical thinking and reasoning the philosophers analyzed truth in the world.
What was the Enlightenment?
Overview. The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement in the eighteenth century that emphasized reason and science. The British colonist Benjamin Franklin gained fame on both sides of the Atlantic as a printer, publisher, and scientist. He embodied Enlightenment ideals in the British Atlantic with his scientific experiments ...
What were the main ideas of the Enlightenment?
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons. Several ideas dominated Enlightenment thought, including rationalism, empiricism, progressivism, and cosmopolitanism. Rationalism is the idea that humans are capable of using their faculty of reason to gain knowledge.
What was the Freemasons' philosophy?
The Freemasons were members of a fraternal society that advocated Enlightenment principles of inquiry and tolerance. Freemasonry originated in London coffeehouses in the early 18th century, and Masonic lodges—local units—soon spread throughout Europe and the British colonies.
How did the colonists spread the Enlightenment ideas?
Some American colonists spread the enlightenment ideas through pamphlets, newspapers, and other publications. The wealthy women of Paris also held gatherings in their homes, called salons, where their peers could hear inspiring music, view art and listen to ideas and writings from great thinkers.
Who were the Enlightenment thinkers?
Using the power of the press, Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke, Isaac Newton, and Voltaire questioned accepted knowledge and spread new ideas about openness, investigation, and religious tolerance throughout Europe and the Americas.
What did cosmopolitanism reflect?
Finally, cosmopolitanism reflected Enlightenment thinkers’ view of themselves as actively engaged citizens of the world as opposed to provincial and close-minded individuals. In all, Enlightenment thinkers endeavored to be ruled by reason, not prejudice.
When and where did the Enlightenment take place?
Historians place the Enlightenment in Europe (with a strong emphasis on France) during the late 17th and the 18th centuries, or, more comprehensively, between the Glorious Revolution in 1688 and the French Revolution of 1789. It represents a phase in the intellectual history of Europe and also programs of reform, inspired by a belief in the possibility of a better world, that outlined specific targets for criticism and programs of action.
Where did the Enlightenment come from?
The roots of the Enlightenment can be found in the humanism of the Renaissance, with its emphasis on the study of Classical literature. The Protestant Reformation, with its antipathy toward received religious dogma, was another precursor.
Who were some of the major figures of the Enlightenment?
Some of the most important writers of the Enlightenment were the Philosophes of France, especially Voltaire and the political philosopher Montesquieu. Other important Philosophes were the compilers of the Encyclopédie, including Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Condorcet. Outside France, the Scottish philosophers and economists David Hume and Adam Smith, the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, Immanuel Kant of Germany, and the American statesman Thomas Jefferson were notable Enlightenment thinkers.
What were the most important ideas of the Enlightenment?
Skepticism about received wisdom was another important idea; everything was to be subjected to testing and rational analysis. Religious tolerance and the idea that individuals should be free from coercion in their personal lives and consciences were also Enlightenment ideas.
What were some results of the Enlightenment?
The French Revolution and the American Revolution were almost direct results of Enlightenment thinking. The idea that society is a social contract between the government and the governed stemmed from the Enlightenment as well. Widespread education for children and the founding of universities and libraries also came about as a result. However, there was a countermovement that followed the Enlightenment in the late 18th and mid-19th centuries— Romanticism.
What was the countermovement that followed the Enlightenment?
However, there was a countermovement that followed the Enlightenment in the late 18th and mid-19th centuries— Romanticism. Romanticism. Read more about Romanticism, the countermovement that followed the Enlightenment.
What were the deist beliefs?
For the Deist, a very few religious truths sufficed, and they were truths felt to be manifest to all rational beings: the existence of one God, often conceived of as architect or mechanician, the existence of a system of rewards and punishments administered by that God, and the obligation of humans to virtue and piety.
Significant people and publications
The most famous work by Nicholas de Condorcet, Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progres de l'esprit humain, 1795. With the publication of this book, the development of the Age of Enlightenment is considered generally ended.
Philosophy
René Descartes ' rationalist philosophy laid the foundation for enlightenment thinking. His attempt to construct the sciences on a secure metaphysical foundation was not as successful as his method of doubt applied in philosophic areas leading to a dualistic doctrine of mind and matter.
Science
Science played an important 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 favour of the development of free speech and thought.
Sociology, economics and law
Hume and other Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed a " science of man ", which was expressed historically in works by authors including James Burnett, Adam Ferguson, John Millar and William Robertson, all of whom merged a scientific study of how humans behaved in ancient and primitive cultures with a strong awareness of the determining forces of modernity.
Politics
The Enlightenment has long been hailed as the foundation of modern Western political and intellectual culture. The Enlightenment brought political modernization to the West, in terms of introducing democratic values and institutions and the creation of modern, liberal democracies.
Religion
The French philosopher Voltaire argued for religious tolerance, saying that "It does not require great art, or magnificently trained eloquence, to prove that Christians should tolerate each other. I, however, am going further: I say that we should regard all men as our brothers.
National variations
The Enlightenment took hold in most European countries, often with a specific local emphasis.
Why did the Enlightenment end?
According to Encyclopedia Britannica’s entry on the subject, “The Enlightenment expired as the victim of its own excesses”. The Enlightenment was so focused on abstract reason and stoicism, above all other virtues, that some people grew tired of it and began to seek its opposite: emotion, sensationalism, and the softening of every moral value. This search was further sparked by the failure of the French Revolution and its ensuing Reign of Terror. After that disaster, few people believed that a reason-based, egalitarian society could, in fact, function.
Who wrote the Enlightenment?
Sir Isaac Newton, everybody. [PHOTO: pinterest] It’s impossible to talk about the Enlightenment without talking about the political leaps and bounds made during the period. Historians trace the scientific beginnings of the Enlightenment back to Sir Isaac Newton ’s Principia Mathematica, written in 1686.
What style of art did the Enlightenment use?
Art during the Age of Enlightenment saw a shift from the opulent baroque style of the 17th century to a “art for the people” – a more simple, neoclassicism. Artists looked back to styles found in Classical and Renaissance-era creations, and used their art as their voice to spread their feelings and voice their opinions. The Enlightenment was the first time in European history that art served not only a political or religious agenda, sponsored by the rich in society, but also served as a medium of expression.
What is the philosophical thread of the Enlightenment?
One enduring philosophical thread remained, however: the idea that the human race was, as a whole, moving forward. The idea of progress. These beliefs and factors combined with the scientific leaps made during the Enlightenment would drive the world forward toward the Industrial period, and, to the philosophical, artistic, and literary period known as the Romantic Era.
What was the Romantic period?
It was a volatile time marked by art, scientific discoveries, reformation, essays, and poetry. It begun with the American War for Independence and ended with a bang when the French Revolution shook the world, causing many to question whether ideas of egalitarianism and pure reason were at all safe or beneficial for society. Opposing schools of thought, new doctrines and scientific theories, and a belief in the good of humankind would eventually give way the Romantic Period in the 19th century.
What happened in 1789?
In 1789, they revolted. They threw out all old authorities and attempted to remake society along completely rational lines, but it got completely out of control. In what historians call “The Reign of Terror”, they murdered thousands of people and spread fear of revolution throughout the rest of Europe.
Which composers paved the way for music that was brilliant, bright, and celebrated the natural elements of nature?
Composers like Joseph Haydn and geniuses like Mozart paved the way for music that was brilliant, bright, and celebrated the natural elements of nature.
What was the end of the Enlightenment?
The age of Enlightenment is considered to have ended with the French Revolution, which had a violent aspect that discredited it in the eyes of many. Also, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), who referred to Sapere aude! (Dare to know!) as the motto of the Enlightenment, ended up criticizing the Enlightenment confidence on the power of reason. Romanticism, with its emphasis upon imagination, spontaneity, and passion, emerged also as a reaction against the dry intellectualism of rationalists. Criticism of the Enlightenment has expressed itself in a variety of forms, such as religious conservatism, postmodernism, and feminism .
Who were the Enlightenment thinkers?
Several writers, such as Arthur Herman and James Buchan, point to the high level of Scottish contributions to Enlightenment thought, represented by such thinkers as Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746), David Hume, and Adam Smith (1723-1790) .
What religions were affected by the Enlightenment?
Depending on how much it affected Christianity, there occurred two distinguishable schools in the religion of the Enlightenment: Rational supernaturalism and Deism . Rational supernaturalists included William Chillingworth (1602-1644), John Tillotson (1630-1694), ...
How did Kant and Schleiermacher try to accept Enlightenment thought?
So, they attempted to critically accept Enlightenment thought, by synthesizing both traditions. Kant came up with a religion of "practical reason" (not of "pure reason") as a new synthesis of the two, while Schleiermacher decided that "feeling" (not "pure reason" nor "practical reason") is the domain of synthesis.
Why did the Enlightenment believe in reason?
The Enlightenment advocated reason as a means to establishing an authoritative system of aesthetics, ethics, government, and even religion, which would allow human beings to obtain objective truth about the whole of reality. Emboldened by the revolution in physics commenced by Newtonian kinematics, Enlightenment thinkers argued that reason could free humankind from superstition and religious authoritarianism that had brought suffering and death to millions in religious wars. Also, the wide availability of knowledge was made possible through the production of encyclopedias, serving the Enlightenment cause of educating the human race.
What are the consequences of the Enlightenment?
The legacy of the Enlightenment has been of enormous consequence for the modern world. The general decline of the church, the growth of secular humanism and political and economic liberalism, the belief in progress, and the development of science are among its fruits. Its political thought developed by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), ...
What is Romanticism a reaction to?
Romanticism, with its emphasis upon imagination, spontaneity, and passion, emerged also as a reaction against the dry intellectualism of rationalists. Criticism of the Enlightenment has expressed itself in a variety of forms, such as religious conservatism, postmodernism, and feminism . The legacy of the Enlightenment has been ...
Overview
The Age of Enlightenment, or simply the Enlightenment, was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries with global influences and effects. The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on the value of human happiness, the pursuit of knowledge obtained by means of reason and the evidence of the senses, and ideals such as liberty, pr…
Significant people and publications
The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the Scientific Revolution. Earlier philosophers whose work influenced the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon and René Descartes. Some of the major figures of the Enlightenment included Cesare Beccaria, Denis Diderot, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, John Locke, Montesquieu, Je…
Philosophy
Francis Bacon's empiricism and René Descartes' rationalist philosophy laid the foundation for enlightenment thinking. Descartes attempt to construct the sciences on a secure metaphysical foundation was not as successful as his method of doubt applied in philosophic areas leading to a dualistic doctrine of mind and matter. His skepticism was refined by John Locke's Essay Concerning …
Science
Science played an important 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 favour of the development of free speech and thought. Scientific progress during the Enlightenment included the discovery of carbon dioxide (fixed air) by the chemist Joseph Black, the argument for deep time by the geologist James Hutton and …
Sociology, economics and law
Hume and other Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed a "science of man", which was expressed historically in works by authors including James Burnett, Adam Ferguson, John Millar and William Robertson, all of whom merged a scientific study of how humans behaved in ancient and primitive cultures with a strong awareness of the determining forces of modernity. Modern sociology la…
Politics
The Enlightenment has long been hailed as the foundation of modern Western political and intellectual culture. The Enlightenment brought political modernization to the West, in terms of introducing democratic values and institutions and the creation of modern, liberal democracies. This thesis has been widely accepted by Anglophone scholars and has been reinforced by the …
Religion
Enlightenment era religious commentary was a response to the preceding century of religious conflict in Europe, especially the Thirty Years' War. Theologians of the Enlightenment wanted to reform their faith to its generally non-confrontational roots and to limit the capacity for religious controversy to spill over into politics and warfare while still maintaining a true faith in God. Fo…
National variations
The Enlightenment took hold in most European countries and influenced nations globally, often with a specific local emphasis. For example, in France it became associated with anti-government and anti-Church radicalism, while in Germany it reached deep into the middle classes, where it expressed a spiritualistic and nationalistic tone without threatening governments or established churches. G…