Isaac Newton
- Date:
- c. 1601 - c. 1800
- Location:
- Europe
Top Questions
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.
What led to the Enlightenment?
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. Perhaps the most important sources of what became the Enlightenment were the complementary rational and empirical methods of discovering truth that were introduced by the scientific revolution.
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?
It was thought during the Enlightenment that human reasoning could discover truths about the world, religion, and politics and could be used to improve the lives of humankind. 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.
Enlightenment, French siècle des Lumières (literally “century of the Enlightened”), German Aufklärung, a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries in which ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and humanity were synthesized into a worldview that gained wide assent in the West and that instigated revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and politics. 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.
A brief treatment of the Enlightenment follows. For full treatment, see Europe, history of: The Enlightenment.
The age of reason: human understanding of the universe
The powers and uses of reason had first been explored by the philosophers of ancient Greece. The Romans adopted and preserved much of Greek culture, notably including the ideas of a rational natural order and natural law. Amid the turmoil of empire, however, a new concern arose for personal salvation, and the way was paved for the triumph of the Christian religion. Christian thinkers gradually found uses for their Greco-Roman heritage. The system of thought known as Scholasticism, culminating in the work of Thomas Aquinas, resurrected reason as a tool of understanding. In Thomas’s presentation, Aristotle provided the method for obtaining that truth which was ascertainable by reason alone; since Christian revelation contained a higher truth, Thomas placed the natural law evident to reason subordinate to, but not in conflict with, eternal law and divine law.
The intellectual and political edifice of Christianity, seemingly impregnable in the Middle Ages, fell in turn to the assaults made on it by humanism, the Renaissance, and the Protestant Reformation. Humanism bred the experimental science of Francis Bacon, Nicolaus Copernicus, and Galileo and the mathematical investigations of René Descartes, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and Isaac Newton. The Renaissance rediscovered much of Classical culture and revived the notion of humans as creative beings, and the Reformation, more directly but in the long run no less effectively, challenged the monolithic authority of the Roman Catholic Church. For Martin Luther, as for Bacon or Descartes, the way to truth lay in the application of human reason. Both the Renaissance and the Reformation were less movements for intellectual liberty than changes of authority, but, since they appealed to different authorities, they contributed to the breakdown of the community of thought. Received authority, whether of Ptolemy in the sciences or of the church in matters of the spirit, was to be subject to the probings of unfettered minds.
Britannica Quiz
European History
The successful application of reason to any question depended on its correct application—on the development of a methodology of reasoning that would serve as its own guarantee of validity. Such a methodology was most spectacularly achieved in the sciences and mathematics, where the logics of induction and deduction made possible the creation of a sweeping new cosmology. The formative influence for the Enlightenment was not so much content as method. The great geniuses of the 17th century confirmed and amplified the concept of a world of calculable regularity, but, more importantly, they seemingly proved that rigorous mathematical reasoning offered the means, independent of God’s revelation, of establishing truth. The success of Newton, in particular, in capturing in a few mathematical equations the laws that govern the motions of the planets, gave great impetus to a growing faith in the human capacity to attain knowledge. At the same time, the idea of the universe as a mechanism governed by a few simple—and discoverable—laws had a subversive effect on the concepts of a personal God and individual salvation that were central to Christianity.
FAQs
What are the 5 main ideas of the Enlightenment philosophes? ›
At least six ideas came to punctuate American Enlightenment thinking: deism, liberalism, republicanism, conservatism, toleration and scientific progress.
What were the Enlightenment philosophers ideas? ›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 was the Enlightenment summary? ›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.
Who were 4 important thinkers of the Enlightenment? ›The Enlightenment is commonly associated with men whose writing and thinking combined philosophy, politics, economics and science, notably John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, Isaac Newton and Thomas Jefferson.
What are the 4 impacts of Enlightenment? ›The Enlightenment helped combat the excesses of the church, establish science as a source of knowledge, and defend human rights against tyranny.
What were 3 main ideas of the Enlightenment? ›So what was it? The Enlightenment, sometimes called the 'Age of Enlightenment', was a late 17th- and 18th-century intellectual movement emphasizing reason, individualism, and skepticism.
What was the main idea of the Enlightenment *? ›It was thought during the Enlightenment that human reasoning could discover truths about the world, religion, and politics and could be used to improve the lives of humankind. Skepticism about received wisdom was another important idea; everything was to be subjected to testing and rational analysis.
What was the main goal of Enlightenment? ›The main goal of the wide-ranging intellectual movement called the Enlightenment was to understand the natural world and humankind's place in it solely on the basis of reason.
What were 2 important effects of the Enlightenment? ›The Enlightenment brought secular thought to Europe and reshaped the ways people understood issues such as liberty, equality, and individual rights. Today those ideas serve as the cornerstone of the world's strongest democracies.
What are important things to know about the Enlightenment? ›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.
What was the Enlightenment easy definition? ›
the Enlightenment : a movement of the 18th century that stressed the belief that science and logic give people more knowledge and understanding than tradition and religion.
What caused Enlightenment? ›The causes of the Enlightenment include the focus on humanism during the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution. These three ideas and events led to new ways of thinking and gave the Enlightenment the momentum needed to influence individuals worldwide.
What are the 2 main concepts 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 concepts of utility and sociability were also crucial in the dissemination of information that would better society as a whole.
How did Enlightenment ideas spread? ›The salons and the Encyclopedia helped spread Enlightenment ideas to edu- cated people all over Europe. Enlightenment ideas also eventually spread through newspapers, pamphlets, and even political songs.
What were the philosophers main ideas? ›Although each philosoph had his or her own ideas, they all centered around one main theme: equality and human freedom. One famous influential philosopher was John Locke.
What was the main idea of the Enlightenment philosophers essay? ›The main idea of the Enlightenment was that all men are created equal no matter their differences and that everyone should live the way they want to pursue their own interest. During the 17th and 18th century philosophers such as John Locke, Voltaire, and Adam Smith were well known.
Why is the Enlightenment important to us? ›The Enlightenment applied scientific reasoning to politics, science, and religion. It promoted religious tolerance and restored literature, arts, and music as important disciplines worthy of study in colleges. A non-denominational moral philosophy replaced theology in many college curricula.
Who made the Enlightenment? ›Its roots are usually traced to 1680s England, where in the span of three years Isaac Newton published his “Principia Mathematica” (1686) and John Locke his “Essay Concerning Human Understanding” (1689)—two works that provided the scientific, mathematical and philosophical toolkit for the Enlightenment's major advances ...
Where did the Enlightenment start? ›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.
What are the five main ideas of the philosophies? ›- Reason. almost a "divine" force; made humans human; destroys intolerance, bigotry and prejudice in ones thinking.
- Nature. ...
- Happiness. ...
- Progress. ...
- Liberty and Freedom.
What is the main idea of the Enlightenment period? ›
It was thought during the Enlightenment that human reasoning could discover truths about the world, religion, and politics and could be used to improve the lives of humankind. Skepticism about received wisdom was another important idea; everything was to be subjected to testing and rational analysis.
What are the 4 importance of philosophy? ›It teaches critical thinking, close reading, clear writing, and logical analysis; it uses these to understand the language we use to describe the world, and our place within it. Different areas of philosophy are distinguished by the questions they ask. Do our senses accurately describe reality?
What are the 3 philosophical theories? ›THREE MAJOR AREAS OF PHILOSOPHY. Theory of Reality : Ontology & Metaphysics. Theory of Knowledge: Epistemology--from episteme and logos. Theory of Value: Axiology--from the Greek axios (worth, value) and logos.
What is the 5 meaning of philosophy? ›: a discipline comprising as its core logic, aesthetics, ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology. : pursuit of wisdom. : a search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than observational means. : an analysis of the grounds of and concepts expressing fundamental beliefs.
Why is Enlightenment ideas important? ›“The Enlightenment” has been regarded as a turning point in the intellectual history of the West. The principles of religious tolerance, optimism about human progress and a demand for rational debate are often thought to be a powerful legacy of the ideas of Locke, Newton, Voltaire and Diderot.
What caused the Enlightenment? ›The causes of the Enlightenment include the focus on humanism during the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution. These three ideas and events led to new ways of thinking and gave the Enlightenment the momentum needed to influence individuals worldwide.
What was the impact of the Enlightenment? ›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 were the philosophers main idea? ›What did the philosophes hope to accomplish? They hoped to find natural laws or truths about human nature and human society. They hoped to find natural laws for the social sciences like government, economics and social relations.