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Enlightenment

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24 views

Enlightenment

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tsvetkovanelly
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Alexander Pope (1688–1744) wrote in a couplet, 'God said, Let Newton be! and All was Light'.

The lines
perhaps encapsulate the Enlightenment sentiment that favoured reason over blind faith.

The Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason, was a European social and
intellectual movement during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, driven by a mindset that
favoured science and reason over religious beliefs. The thinkers, writers, and artists during the Enlightenment
had a predisposition towards logic, scientific enquiry, and individual liberty.

The Age of Enlightenment: Period

There is an ongoing debate on the timeline of the Enlightenment. The beginning of the Age of Enlightenment is
usually dated from the death of Louis XIV (b. 1638) of France in 1715 and its end in 1789 with the beginning of
the French Revolution.

While some historians date the beginning of the Enlightenment back to 1637, the year René Descartes's (1596–
1650) Discourse on the Method was published. It contained Descartes's most quoted phrase, 'Cogito, ergo sum',
which translates as 'I think, therefore I am', reflecting the philosophical enquiry into knowledge and its origins.
Some also argue that the Enlightenment began with the publication of Sir Isaac Newton's (1643–
1727) Principia Mathematica (1687) and the death of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) in 1804 as the end of the
Enlightenment era.

The Age of Enlightenment: Origin

The English name Age of Enlightenment is a translation inspired by the French Siècle des Lumières and the
German Aufklärung, centred on the idea of light, both referring to the Enlightenment in Europe.

The Age of Enlightenment: meaning


The Enlightenment is often described as a period marked by scientific, political, and philosophical
conversations that heavily influenced European society from the late seventeenth century until the beginning of
the nineteenth century.

The origins of the Enlightenment can be traced back to the English Civil Wars. With the re-establishment of the
monarchy following the restoration of Charles II (1630–1685) in 1660, political thinkers of the time, like
Thomas Hobbes (1588– 1679) and John Locke (1632–1704), began to contemplate political systems that could
be more conducive for progress.

The inspiration behind the Enlightenment mindset is usually traced back to thinkers like Francis Bacon
(1561– 1626), Descartes (1596–1650), Voltaire (1694–1778), and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716). The
philosophy of Immanuel Kant is considered to be an important philosophy from the Age of Enlightenment.
Kant's essay 'What Is Enlightenment?' (1784) defines Enlightenment as the liberation of mankind from self-
imposed oppression.

The scientific revolution brought forth by the discoveries and inventions of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543),
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), and Newton challenged the mainstream religious beliefs and dogmas of the time.
In America, the principles of the Enlightenment were represented by political figures and thinkers like Benjamin
Franklin (1706–90) and Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), who ultimately helped shape the founding documents
of the United States.

Enlightenment in Britain

The Enlightenment period in Britain coincided with political and social challenges, especially surrounding the
monarchy and social hierarchy. However, there are scholars who debate the existence of an English
Enlightenment or argue that the Enlightenment ideals had already been part of the intellectual climate in
England before the seventeenth century. The prominent figures who could be considered Enlightenment
thinkers in Britain include John Locke, Isaac Newton, Alexander Pope (1688–1744), and Jonathan Swift (1667–
1745).

The Age of Enlightenment: Literature

Novel

The Age of Enlightenment was part of the formative age of the novel, starting from the 1500s. Although the rise
of the novel wasn't complete until the nineteenth century and novelists were less popular during that time, there
have been great works that have now secured their place in the Western Canon. For example, Miguel de
Cervantes (1547–1616) in Spain, François Rabelais (date of birth speculated to be around 1490– 1553) in
France, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) in Germany, and the English writer Henry Fielding (1707–
1754) are celebrated novelists who are widely studied today.
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) and Jonathan Swift were among the prominent English writers of the Enlightenment
period. Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1722), and Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726) are
examples of how writers of the Enlightenment era attempted to educate and inform the public.

Ipsa scientia potestas est (Knowledge itself is power).

― Francis Bacon, Meditations Sacrae (1597)

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