The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement which took place in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As a historical category, the term "Enlightenment" refers to a series of changes in European thought and letters. It is one of the few historical categories that was coined by the people who lived through the era. “The Enlightenment focused on the use of reason and secularism. It also led to new developments in art, philosophy, and especially politics. Enlightenment thinkers, or philosophers, as well as followers of the movement believed that humans could understand the universe and better themselves through the use of reason” (Kramnick). The Enlightenment had its roots in several areas, including the popularization of science, skepticism about religion, as well as travel literature which emphasized that the Christian perception of God was one of many, and not a universal doctrine. Perhaps the most significant root of the Enlightenment was the Scientific Revolution, which affected the perspective of the world Enlightenment philosophers had by influencing them to use logic, reason, and rationalism in order to understand the world. “The scientific revolution (1500-1700) gave rise to the spirit of inquiry, reasoning, and the critical (scientific) method of arriving at the truth” (Kramnick).
“The Scientific Revolution was an attempt to organize knowledge about nature as well as to understand the physical world through logic and the use of reason. The Scientific Revolution was characterized by numerous achievements. It was marked by a shift from a geocentric (Earth-centered) view to a heliocentric (Sun-centered) view” (Hall). This is a clear contrast to Christianity, which placed humans at the center of the universe. Another important achievement of the Scientific Revolution was the fact that a mathematical understanding of the movement of heavenly bodies was achieved. Also, the Scientific Revolution was characterized by philosophical approaches to understanding the universe. “The scientists from the Scientific Revolution agreed that through understanding, humans could improve the world” (Hall). They advocated the use of reason for understanding the physical world and more often than not, their findings contradicted church doctrine.
Two of the key pioneers of the Scientific Revolution and who many historians consider to be the fathers of the Enlightenment were Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and Rene Descartes (1596-1650. In addition to their individual contributions to their particular areas of scientific study they also started to define how science operates; the scientific method.”
“Francis Bacon is known for his association with empiricism, experiment and induction. He made careful observation of the natural world and collected as much data as possible and then he would draw conclusions or general laws” (Norton). Descartes’ method took the opposite approach. Rationalism and deduction was what he was associated with. “He argued that the scientist starts with an idea subjects it to logical, mathematical reasoning and finally tests it against the natural world” (Garber). Even though they had opposite approaches they were also complementary and together both formed the basis of modern science.
“Another prominent thinker of the Enlightenment and also a major contributor to science was Galileo” (Galileo). He reinvented the telescope by making it more powerful than it already was. Galileo constructed the ultimate telescope which allowed you to view objects that would appear nearly one thousand times larger, and over thirty times closer than their natural vision. Galileo’s reconstruction of the telescope had him viewing the world differently. He used this instrument to his full advantage to overlook the seas and territories in depth. He took a closer look at the moon the stars, and a few of the planets. With this instrument, he was able to realize that the moon was imperfect and it had holes and craters on it. Then, he was able to find a method to measure their distances apart.
The philosophers of the Enlightenment were for the most part French intellectuals. They were writers, professors, and social reformers and they came mainly from the nobility and the middle classes. While many of the philosophers held different viewpoints, they all agreed that philosophy could be the foundation for bettering society just as scientists from the Scientific Revolution agreed that through understanding, humans could improve the world. Additionally, the philosophers were captivated by reason and secularism; the scientists of the Scientific Revolution advocated the use of reason for understanding the physical world and more often than not, their findings contradicted church doctrine.
The Enlightenment was a broad and sweeping intellectual movement with many characteristics and implications. The Enlightenment was most notably a decisive break with the Christian worldview. It embraced reason over religion, superstition, and tradition. “Enlightenment thinkers and followers believed that reason and secularism were necessary for political, economic, and social progress. The Enlightenment can attribute many of its ideas to the Scientific Revolution; however, the Scientific Revolution concerned itself with the use of reason and the scientific method in order to discover the laws governing the physical world while the Enlightenment was concerned with using reason to discover laws governing society” (Hartford). Also, the work of the scientists of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment philosophers both directly or indirectly attacked Christianity; Christian doctrine was incompatible with many of the scientific discoveries made during the Scientific Revolution despite the fact that these scientists wanted to exalt God through their work and Christianity was seen by Enlightenment thinkers as something characterized by superstition, not reason.
The most radical of the Enlightenment philosophers was Denis Diderot. Diderot condemned Christianity; he saw it as fanatical and unreasonable. He argued for a materialistic conception of life; according to Diderot, there was no spirit or soul. This argument accorded with the scientific method championed by the scientists of the Scientific Revolution. The scientific method entailed direct observation, and the soul to Diderot had its grounding in superstition, not in science or reason. He attempted to classify, organize, and understand society just as the scientists of the Scientific Revolution attempted to do the same with the physical world. Diderot, like the scientists of the Scientific Revolution, believed that by using the tools or methods of science, one could understand anything in the world. Diderot placed religion under scientific scrutiny, that is, religion was not something that provided definitive answers, and rather, science and reason were. This shows that once the public is given complete freedom, enlightenment is almost inevitable. It is destructive to implant prejudices, mainly because they will eventually “revenge themselves upon their authors, or their authors, descendants” (Kant). Kant reveals that society expects us never to argue and agree with what we are told. We find restrictions on freedom everywhere and are expected to keep up with these expectations and never argue. This shows how the public’s use of reason should be free at all times because it will bring the enlightenment to mankind.
Rise of modern science had many consequences. “Went hand in hand with the rise of a new expanding social group-the international scientific community” (Hartford). Members linked together by common interests and shared values as well as by journals and the learned scientific societies founded in many countries in the later 17th century and 18th century. Expansion of knowledge was the primary goal of this community and scientists material and psychological rewards depended on their success in this endeavor. Thus science become quite competitive and even more scientific advance was inevitable.
The scientific revolution had few consequences for economic life and the living standards of the masses until the late 18th century at the very earliest.. “True, improvements in the techniques of navigation facilitated overseas trade and helped enrich leading merchants, but science had relatively few practice al economic applications. The close link between theoretical, or p7ure, science and applied technology, which we take for granted today, simply did not exist in any of the world’s civilizations before the 19th century” (Hartford).
Enlightenment gave importance and self-worth to the individual in the society and in the government. We must ask ourselves, how did this great event Enlightenment help the society and government in general? What sort of ideas/ideals made the greatest impact? The works and thoughts of many philosophers (philosophers) encouraged and influenced people to think differently about the environment around them. This is the basis of the ideology of Enlightenment. This brings us to another question, what sort of restrictions were the people in the society living under? Well, Enlightenment created a movement that made people question the ideas and beliefs that were imposed on them. These beliefs and facts that they were supposed to believe in were prescribed by their society with no proper logic or reasoning. Once intelligent people of the society figured out the right answers and ideas based on good reasoning and logic, they took action to change things. The ideology of Enlightenment quickly spread around and got people reconsidering the high power of the church and government.
“Political thought in the European Enlightenment fed continuously on this pre-Enlightenment mentality of empirical interrogation of past dogma and theory, of rational challenge to authority and tradition, of skepticism, scientific enquiry, increasing secularism and humanitarianism.” (William, 7)
The Enlightenment movement drastically changed everything. This was caused by a few great minds that thought of changing things for the better. A good example of this is our present government. Our government is separated into three balances of power. This was Montesquieu’s idea of the European government which wasn’t true but this idea influenced Americans to make their government like this. Montesquieu thought that separation of powers was good because it didn’t let any individual or group gain total control of the government.
John Locke, a great philosopher, made a great contribution to the Enlightenment ideology for both society and government. His ideas were contradictory to the ideas of Hobbes. Since, they were complete opposites. Locke believed that human nature was good while Hobbes believed that human nature was bad. Hobbes argued that his idea was right, and that for people to escape that horrible way of living, they had to give their rights away to a strong absolute leader or ruler and in return they got law and order. This was the social contract. Locke was completely against this and favored self-government. According to Locke, people were born free and equal with three natural rights which are: life, liberty, and propriety. He said that the purpose of government is to protect these rights.
“The civil freedom that Locke defines, as, “something protected by the force of political laws, comes increasingly to be interpreted as the freedom to trade, to exchange without the interference of governmental regulation.” Within the context of the Enlightenment, economic freedom is a salient interpretation of the individual freedom highly valued in the period.” (Bristow)
Locke’s theory had a great influence on modern political thinking. His belief that a government should come from the people, is the foundation and start of modern democracy. Actually, when Thomas Jefferson wrote the declaration of independence, he included the ideals of John Locke by adding “Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness.” He also included more things in the document about freedom and human worth which all went back to Locke’s teachings. After the Glorious Revolution of the 1680s, Locke worked on Newton’s principles and theories in psychology, maturity, and political theory. Enlightenment, as an ideology, spread all over, and came into full bloom.
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