"The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was an intellectual and philosophical movement that occurred in Europe, especially Western Europe, in the 17th and 18th centuries, with global influences and effects."
The prominent philosophers and writers who contributed to the Age of Enlightenment. Examples include Immanuel Kant, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Voltaire.
Reason: Enlightenment thinkers believed that reason, or rational thinking, was the key to understanding the world and solving problems.
Natural rights: Enlightenment thinkers believed in the idea of natural rights, meaning that every human being has certain basic rights that cannot be taken away.
Social contract: The social contract is a theory that explains the relationship between the government and the governed. Enlightenment thinkers believed that the government should be based on a social contract, which means that the government derives its authority from the people.
Liberty: The concept of liberty involves the idea that individuals should have the freedom to do as they please as long as they do not harm others. Many Enlightenment thinkers saw this as a fundamental human right.
Equality: Enlightenment thinkers were also interested in the idea of equality, arguing that all people are equal and should be treated as such.
Progress: Enlightened thinkers believed that society could progress through the application of reason and science.
Skepticism: Many Enlightenment thinkers were skeptical of traditional beliefs and religion, and instead placed their faith in reason and scientific evidence.
Freedom of thought and expression: Enlightenment thinkers believed that individuals should have the freedom to express themselves and to think and believe as they choose.
Separation of powers: Separation of powers refers to the idea that the government's power should be divided among different branches, such as the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
Constitutionalism: Constitutionalism is the idea that the government should be guided by a written constitution, which sets out the powers and limitations of the government.
Intellectual tolerance: Ennlightenment thinkers believed in tolerance of other people's beliefs and ideas.
Empiricism: Enlightenment thinkers valued empiricism, which is the idea that knowledge should be based on observable and measurable evidence.
Deism: Some Enlightenment thinkers were deists, meaning that they believed in a creator God who had created the universe but did not interfere in the world after that.
Encyclopedism: A movement of Enlightenment figures who aimed to collect and disseminate all human knowledge in a single work of reference.
Moral philosophy: Enlightenment figures developed many new ideas regarding ethical behavior as it relates to individuals and society.
Rationalists: Argued that reason was the primary source of knowledge and emphasized the importance of logic in understanding the world. Key figures include René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, and Gottfried Leibniz.
Empiricists: Focused on sensory experience as the basis of knowledge and scientific inquiry. Key figures include John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume.
Social Contract Theorists: Argued that individuals agree to give up some of their natural rights in exchange for protection by a government. Key figures include Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau.
Utilitarians: Proposed that actions should be judged by their utility, or proportional benefit or pleasure, to society as a whole, rather than as a moral system based on religious or philosophical doctrine. Key figures include Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.
Skeptics: Emphasized the need for questioning and doubting knowledge claims to arrive at truth. Key figures include David Hume and Voltaire.
Anti-Authoritarians: Criticized the power structures of the time, emphasizing individual freedom and rational inquiry. Key figures include Montesquieu, Diderot, and Voltaire.
Naturalists: Applied scientific methods and empiricism to the study of nature, culture, and society, seeking objective knowledge about how the world works. Key figures include Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.
Feminists: Advocated for women's rights, including the right to education, property ownership, and autonomy, challenging traditional gender roles and social norms. Key figures include Mary Wollstonecraft and Olympe de Gouges.
Cosmopolitans: Advocated for international cooperation, peace, and the recognition of universal human rights, offering alternative visions of social organization beyond the nation-state. Key figures include Immanuel Kant and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
"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 natural law, liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state."
"A variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism, socialism, and neoclassicism, trace their intellectual heritage to the Enlightenment."
"The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Catholic Church and paved the way for the political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries."
"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 Enlightenment was preceded by the Scientific Revolution and the work of Francis Bacon and John Locke, among others."
"European historians traditionally date its beginning with the death of Louis XIV of France in 1715 and its end with the 1789 outbreak of the French Revolution."
"Many historians now date the end of the Enlightenment as the start of the 19th century, with the latest proposed year being the death of Immanuel Kant in 1804."
"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."
"The Enlightenment was marked by an increasing awareness of the relationship between the mind and the everyday media of the world."
"The Enlightenment was marked by an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism, along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy."
"Some date the beginning of the Enlightenment to the publication of René Descartes' Discourse on the Method in 1637, featuring his famous dictum, Cogito, ergo sum ('I think, therefore I am')."
"Others cite the publication of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica (1687) as the culmination of the Scientific Revolution and the beginning of the Enlightenment."
"An attitude captured by Kant's essay Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment, where the phrase Sapere aude (Dare to know) can be found."
"The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Catholic Church and paved the way for the political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries."
"Ideals such as natural law, liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state."
"The concepts of utility and sociability were also crucial in the dissemination of information that would better society as a whole."
"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."
"A variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism, socialism, and neoclassicism, trace their intellectual heritage to the Enlightenment."