18th century enlightenment term papers
The Age of Enlightenment also known as the Age of Reason or simply the Enlightenment [1] [note 2] was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 17th to 19th centuries. The Enlightenment emerged out of a European intellectual and scholarly movement known as Renaissance humanism. Some consider the publication of Isaac Newton 's Principia Mathematica in as the first major enlightenment work. French historians traditionally date the Enlightenment from to , from the death of Louis XIV of France until the outbreak of the French Revolution that ended the Ancien Regime. Most end it with the beginning of the 19th century.
19.1: The Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment also known as the Age of Reason or simply the Enlightenment [1] [note 2] was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 17th to 19th centuries.
The Enlightenment emerged out of a European intellectual and scholarly movement known as Renaissance humanism.
Some consider the publication of Isaac Newton 's Principia Mathematica in as the first major enlightenment work. French historians traditionally date the Enlightenment from to , from the death of Louis XIV of France until the outbreak of the French Revolution that ended the Ancien Regime. Most end it with the beginning of the 19th century. Philosophers and scientists of the period widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies , Masonic lodges , literary salons , coffeehouses and in printed books , journals , and pamphlets.
The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Church and paved the way for the political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries. A variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism and neoclassicism , trace their intellectual heritage to the Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on the sovereignty of reason and the evidence of the senses as the primary sources of knowledge and advanced ideals such as liberty , progress , toleration , fraternity , constitutional government and separation of church and state. The Enlightenment was marked by an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism , along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy—an attitude captured by Immanuel Kant 's essay Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment , where the phrase Sapere aude Dare to know can be found.
The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the scientific revolution. Many of the main political and intellectual figures behind the American Revolution associated themselves closely with the Enlightenment: Benjamin Franklin visited Europe repeatedly and contributed actively to the scientific and political debates there and brought the newest ideas back to Philadelphia; Thomas Jefferson closely followed European ideas and later incorporated some of the ideals of the Enlightenment into the Declaration of Independence ; and James Madison incorporated these ideals into the United States Constitution during its framing in Published between and in thirty-five volumes, it was compiled by Diderot, d'Alembert until and a team of scientists and philosophers.
It helped spread the ideas of the Enlightenment across Europe and beyond. The ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution , which began in After the Revolution, the Enlightenment was followed by the intellectual movement known as Romanticism.
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.
His dualism was challenged by Spinoza 's uncompromising assertion of the unity of matter in his Tractatus and Ethics According to Jonathan Israel , these laid down two distinct lines of Enlightenment thought: first, the moderate variety, following Descartes, Locke and Christian Wolff , which sought accommodation between reform and the traditional systems of power and faith, and second, the radical enlightenment, inspired by the philosophy of Spinoza , advocating democracy, individual liberty, freedom of expression and eradication of religious authority.
Both lines of thought were eventually opposed by a conservative Counter-Enlightenment , which sought a return to faith. In the midth century, Paris became the center of an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity challenging traditional doctrines and dogmas.
The philosophical movement was led by Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau , who argued for a society based upon reason as in ancient Greece [18] 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.
While the Philosophes of the French Enlightenment were not revolutionaries and many were members of the nobility, their ideas played an important part in undermining the legitimacy of the Old Regime and shaping the French Revolution. Francis Hutcheson , a moral philosopher, described the utilitarian and consequentialist principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words, "the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers".
Immanuel Kant — tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom and political authority, as well as map out a view of the public sphere through private and public reason. Mary Wollstonecraft was one of England's earliest feminist philosophers. She is best known for her work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 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 the invention of the condensing steam engine by James Watt. Broadly speaking, Enlightenment science greatly valued empiricism and rational thought and was embedded with the Enlightenment ideal of advancement and progress.
The study of science, under the heading of natural philosophy , was divided into physics and a conglomerate grouping of chemistry and natural history , which included anatomy , biology, geology , mineralogy and zoology.
Societies and academies were also the backbone of the maturation of the scientific profession. Another important development was the popularization of science among an increasingly literate population. Some historians have marked the 18th century as a drab period in the history of science. Scientific academies and societies grew out of the Scientific Revolution as the creators of scientific knowledge in contrast to the scholasticism of the university.
Official scientific societies were chartered by the state in order to provide technical expertise. In reference to this growth, Bernard de Fontenelle coined the term "the Age of Academies" to describe the 18th century.
The influence of science also began appearing more commonly in poetry and literature during the Enlightenment. Some poetry became infused with scientific metaphor and imagery, while other poems were written directly about scientific topics.
After Newton's death in , poems were composed in his honour for decades. Hume and other Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed a " science of man ", [37] 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 largely originated from this movement [38] and Hume's philosophical concepts that directly influenced James Madison and thus the U. Constitution and as popularised by Dugald Stewart , would be the basis of classical liberalism. In , Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations , often considered the first work on modern economics as it had an immediate impact on British economic policy that continues into the 21st century. Smith acknowledged indebtedness and possibly was the original English translator.
Cesare Beccaria , a jurist, criminologist, philosopher and politician and one of the great Enlightenment writers, became famous for his masterpiece Of Crimes and Punishments , later translated into 22 languages, [42] which condemned torture and the death penalty and was a founding work in the field of penology and the Classical School of criminology by promoting criminal justice.
Another prominent intellectual was Francesco Mario Pagano , who wrote important studies such as Saggi Politici Political Essays, , one of the major works of the Enlightenment in Naples; and Considerazioni sul processo criminale Considerations on the criminal trial, , which established him as an international authority on criminal law.
The Enlightenment has long been hailed as the foundation of modern Western political and intellectual culture. This thesis has been widely accepted by Anglophone scholars and has been reinforced by the large-scale studies by Robert Darnton , Roy Porter and most recently by Jonathan Israel. John Locke , one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers, [47] based his governance philosophy in social contract theory , a subject that permeated Enlightenment political thought.
The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes ushered in this new debate with his work Leviathan in Hobbes also developed some of the fundamentals of European liberal thought : the right of the individual; the natural equality of all men; the artificial character of the political order which led to the later distinction between civil society and the state ; the view that all legitimate political power must be "representative" and based on the consent of the people; and a liberal interpretation of law which leaves people free to do whatever the law does not explicitly forbid.
While quite different works, Locke, Hobbes and Rousseau agreed that a social contract, in which the government's authority lies in the consent of the governed, [50] is necessary for man to live in civil society. Locke defines the state of nature as a condition in which humans are rational and follow natural law, in which all men are born equal and with the right to life, liberty and property. However, when one citizen breaks the Law of Nature both the transgressor and the victim enter into a state of war, from which it is virtually impossible to break free.
Therefore, Locke said that individuals enter into civil society to protect their natural rights via an "unbiased judge" or common authority, such as courts, to appeal to. Contrastingly, Rousseau's conception relies on the supposition that "civil man" is corrupted, while "natural man" has no want he cannot fulfill himself. Natural man is only taken out of the state of nature when the inequality associated with private property is established.
This is embodied in the sovereignty of the general will , the moral and collective legislative body constituted by citizens.
Locke is known for his statement that individuals have a right to "Life, Liberty and Property" and his belief that the natural right to property is derived from labor.
Tutored by Locke, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury wrote in "There is a mighty Light which spreads its self over the world especially in those two free Nations of England and Holland; on whom the Affairs of Europe now turn".
The philosophes argued that the establishment of a contractual basis of rights would lead to the market mechanism and capitalism , the scientific method , religious tolerance and the organization of states into self-governing republics through democratic means. In this view, the tendency of the philosophes in particular to apply rationality to every problem is considered the essential change.
Although much of Enlightenment political thought was dominated by social contract theorists, both David Hume and Adam Ferguson criticized this camp. Hume's essay Of the Original Contract argues that governments derived from consent are rarely seen and civil government is grounded in a ruler's habitual authority and force.
It is precisely because of the ruler's authority over-and-against the subject, that the subject tacitly consents and Hume says that the subjects would "never imagine that their consent made him sovereign", rather the authority did so.
In his An Essay on the History of Civil Society , Ferguson uses the four stages of progress, a theory that was very popular in Scotland at the time, to explain how humans advance from a hunting and gathering society to a commercial and civil society without "signing" a social contract. Both Rousseau's and Locke's social contract theories rest on the presupposition of natural rights , which are not a result of law or custom, but are things that all men have in pre-political societies and are therefore universal and inalienable.
The most famous natural right formulation comes from John Locke in his Second Treatise , when he introduces the state of nature. For Locke, the law of nature is grounded on mutual security or the idea that one cannot infringe on another's natural rights, as every man is equal and has the same inalienable rights.
These natural rights include perfect equality and freedom, as well as the right to preserve life and property. Locke also argued against slavery on the basis that enslaving oneself goes against the law of nature because one cannot surrender one's own rights: one's freedom is absolute and no-one can take it away.
Additionally, Locke argues that one person cannot enslave another because it is morally reprehensible, although he introduces a caveat by saying that enslavement of a lawful captive in time of war would not go against one's natural rights. As a spill-over of the Enlightenment, nonsecular beliefs expressed first by Quakers and then by Protestant evangelicals in Britain and the United States emerged.
To these groups, slavery became "repugnant to our religion" and a "crime in the sight of God. The leaders of the Enlightenment were not especially democratic, as they more often look to absolute monarchs as the key to imposing reforms designed by the intellectuals.
Voltaire despised democracy and said the absolute monarch must be enlightened and must act as dictated by reason and justice — in other words, be a "philosopher-king".
In several nations, rulers welcomed leaders of the Enlightenment at court and asked them to help design laws and programs to reform the system, typically to build stronger states.
These rulers are called "enlightened despots" by historians. Joseph was over-enthusiastic, announcing many reforms that had little support so that revolts broke out and his regime became a comedy of errors and nearly all his programs were reversed. In Poland, the model constitution of expressed Enlightenment ideals, but was in effect for only one year before the nation was partitioned among its neighbors. More enduring were the cultural achievements, which created a nationalist spirit in Poland.
Frederick the Great , the king of Prussia from to , saw himself as a leader of the Enlightenment and patronized philosophers and scientists at his court in Berlin. Voltaire, who had been imprisoned and maltreated by the French government, was eager to accept Frederick's invitation to live at his palace. Frederick explained: "My principal occupation is to combat ignorance and prejudice The Enlightenment has been frequently linked to the French Revolution of One view of the political changes that occurred during the Enlightenment is that the " consent of the governed " philosophy as delineated by Locke in Two Treatises of Government represented a paradigm shift from the old governance paradigm under feudalism known as the " divine right of kings ".
In this view, the revolutions of the late s and early s were caused by the fact that this governance paradigm shift often could not be resolved peacefully and therefore violent revolution was the result. Clearly a governance philosophy where the king was never wrong was in direct conflict with one whereby citizens by natural law had to consent to the acts and rulings of their government.
Alexis de Tocqueville proposed the French Revolution as the inevitable result of the radical opposition created in the 18th century between the monarchy and the men of letters of the Enlightenment.
These men of letters constituted a sort of "substitute aristocracy that was both all-powerful and without real power". This illusory power came from the rise of "public opinion", born when absolutist centralization removed the nobility and the bourgeoisie from the political sphere. The "literary politics" that resulted promoted a discourse of equality and was hence in fundamental opposition to the monarchical regime. Enlightenment era religious commentary was a response to the preceding century of religious conflict in Europe, especially the Thirty Years' War.
For moderate Christians, this meant a return to simple Scripture. John Locke abandoned the corpus of theological commentary in favor of an "unprejudiced examination" of the Word of God alone. He determined the essence of Christianity to be a belief in Christ the redeemer and recommended avoiding more detailed debate.
The ideas of the Enlightenment, which emphasized science and reason over faith The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement in the eighteenth century enlightenment ideas through pamphlets, newspapers, and other publications. View the Enlightenment Research Papers on parrotsprint.co.nz for free. Elephants: The Limits of Evidential Credibility in Eighteenth-Century Natural History and.
Central to Enlightenment thought were the use and celebration of reason , the power by which humans understand the universe and improve their own condition. The goals of rational humanity were considered to be knowledge, freedom, and happiness. 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 and the French Revolution of
This Derby porcelain figurine of the radical politician John Wilkes poses nonchalantly among symbols of English liberty. The roots of the Enlightenment can be found in the turmoil of the English Civil Wars.
Enlightenment thinkers in Britain, in France and throughout Europe questioned traditional authority and embraced the notion that humanity could be improved through rational change. 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.
Enlightenment
While the Enlightenment of the late 17th and 18th centuries was a time when science blossomed and revolutions in the United States and France occurred, it was also a time when millions of people were enslaved and transported from Africa to the Western Hemisphere. It can be helpful "to think about the Enlightenment as a series of interlocking, and sometimes warring problems and debates" wrote Dorinda Outram, a history professor at the University of Rochester, in her book "The Enlightenment: Third Edition" Cambridge University Press, The two have in common the idea of 'light,'" wrote John Robertson, a professor of the history of political thought at the University of Cambridge in his book "The Enlightenment: A Very Short Introduction" Oxford University Press, In this so-called time of light, several major ideas became popular. There was growing skepticism toward monarchs, particularly the idea of an absolute monarch — one who could make laws on a whim. There was also growing support for individual liberties and freedoms.
Age of Enlightenment
The Enlightenment, a philosophical movement that dominated in Europe during the 18th century, was centered around the idea that reason is the primary source of authority and legitimacy, and advocated such ideals as liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Enlightenment, was a philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe in the 18th century. It was centered around the idea that reason is the primary source of authority and legitimacy, and it advocated such ideals as liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. The Enlightenment was marked by an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism, along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the church, and paved the way for the political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries. French historians traditionally place the Enlightenment between , the year that Louis XIV died, and , the beginning of the French Revolution. Some recent historians begin the period in the s, with the start of the scientific revolution. However, different national varieties of the movement flourished between the first decades of the 18th century and the first decades of the 19th century.
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The Enlightenment, a philosophical movement that dominated in Europe during the 18th century, was centered around the idea that reason is the primary source of authority and legitimacy, and advocated such ideals as liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. The ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in and emphasized the rights of the common men, as opposed to the exclusive rights of the elites. Although they did eventually inspire the struggle 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. There were two distinct lines of Enlightenment thought: the radical enlightenment, inspired by the philosophy of Spinoza, advocating democracy, individual liberty, freedom of expression, and eradication of religious authority.
