Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was an intellectual and cultural movement in the 18th century that emphasized reason, science, and individualism over tradition and authority. It had a profound impact on literature, promoting the use of rationality, empirical evidence, and critical thinking in literary works. Writers during this period often sought to challenge established norms and explore new ideas through their writing.
8 Key excerpts on "Age of Enlightenment"
eBook - ePub- John Hibben(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Jovian Press(Publisher)
...THE AGE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT ~ THE SIGNIFICANT MOVEMENT OF THOUGHT known as the Enlightenment, or Aufklärung, falls in the main within the period of the eighteenth century. It is seldom, however, that the turn of a century happens to coincide exactly with the beginning or the end of a great epoch, either political, religious or philosophical. The period in philosophy which is referred to in a general way as the eighteenth century begins virtually in the year 1690 with the publication of Locke famous Essay Concerning Human Understanding, and is brought to its close in the year 1781 with the appearance of Kant Critique of Pure Reason. They are the natural boundaries of this “philosophical century.” It was an age characterised by a restless spirit of inquiry — a century of challenge. A new life was awake and stirred in the minds of men. Traditions which had been long venerated became the objects of searching investigation and criticism. The authority of the church, of the state and of the school was no longer regarded as the court of last appeal. The old beliefs which failed to justify themselves at the bar of reason were discarded. The foundations of time-honoured systems seemed shifting and uncertain. There was an insistent demand for the free play of the individual judgment. There was, also, a constant reference to the light of reason, the inner illumination shining bright and clear in contrast to the shadows of mysticism, or to the false and flickering light of dogmatism. Hence the name of the age of illumination, or enlightenment, — the name, also, of the age of reason. In this period there was more particularly a spirit of protest against metaphysical speculation, that is, against all attempts to explain the phenomena of human existence in any manner which transcends the ordinary processes of reason, and consequently possesses no firm foundation of reality...
eBook - ePub- Professor Peter Gordon, Professor Denis Lawton(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...8 The Eighteenth Century: The Enlightenment Introduction Post-Reformation Protestant attitudes and beliefs, including the growth of individualism, had profound effects not only on religious institutions and practices, but also on social, political and economic ideas and ways of thinking, including educational thought. Scientific advances, especially those of Isaac Newton, impressed an increasing number of people throughout the seventeenth century; by the beginning of the eighteenth century a combination of scientific and philosophical thinking was beginning to produce a different world view, partly as a reaction against the Counter-Reformation which we discussed in Chapter 7. The eighteenth century has sometimes been referred to as the Age of Reason. Intellectual ideas, stemming directly from the Renaissance and Reformation were encapsulated in the term 'Enlightenment'. Unlike words such as Renaissance or Gothic, which were much later inventions, the notions of light and enlightenment became current during the eighteenth century in several languages: the French Le Steele des Lumieres became Aufklarting in German from about 1780. 1 The English word Enlightenment did not become current until the nineteenth century but the idea of the light of knowledge shining through the darkness of ignorance was popular during the eighteenth century: Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night. God said, let Newton be! and all was light. (Alexander Pope, Essay on Man) Significant advances in science continued from the seventeenth century into the eighteenth. The illumination, or Enlightenment, provided by science was gradually but consciously extended to political, social and economic issues. On both sides of the Atlantic questioning the political status quo contributed to the causes of the War of Independence in America and the Revolution in France...
eBook - ePub- Charlie R. Steen(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...7 The culture of the Age of Reason, 1740–1784 Events and people The decades of the height of the Enlightenment produced individuals in cultural life who associated themselves with having reason as a guide for all human endeavors. The intellectual and cultural burst of activity affected Europe and the American colonies but proved incapable of transforming the social and political order and faced significant opposition from established churches. Consequently, people advanced ideas encouraging personal freedom and human rights in an environment of repression rooted in archaic practices and beliefs. New philosophy collided with old traditions. The brilliance of the art and music and the vitality of theatrical performances captivated audiences just as the literature of fact and fiction did. Powerful poetry, engaging novels, and a vast range of personal records of life and travel revealed a vigorous civilization. Sadly, the beauty and enthusiasm of the culture contrasted with dynastic politics that indulged in repressive measures and increasingly frightful and costly wars. Those contradictions made the period uneasy and uncertain for many of its most creative citizens. Johann Winckelmann (1717–1768). As a student in Germany he studied both science and the art of the classical world. After moving to Rome, Winkelmann became instrumental in developing archaeology as a scientific investigation of the past while also advancing the aesthetic appreciation of antiquity that became important after 1750. He wrote on the art and architecture of Greece and Rome, and openly advocated imitating their principles and techniques. He strengthened the existing place of classicism in creative life with his History of the Art of Antiquity that summarized the attitudes of neoclassicism with its insistence on simplicity in form and avoidance of ornamentation...
eBook - ePub- Friedhelm Radandt(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...1 THE PHILOSOPHICAL FEATURES OF THE Age of Enlightenment IN GERMANY I The Determining Factors: A Diversity of Approaches Despite the ambiguity of the terms ‘Enlightenment’ and Aufklärung as labels designating a cultural epoch of the eighteenth century, their widespread use suggests that they are still serviceable. Cultural historians have used these words to describe the period that began with the lawyer, philosopher and pedagogue Christian Thomasius in the 1680s and which reached its peak with the popularity of Christian Wolff in the 1730s and 1740s. The literary Enlightenment in Germany produced its first works in the 1720s, when Brockes published his collection of poems entitled Irdisches Vergnügen in GOtt, and achieved its greatest impact by the dominance of such influential authors as Wieland and Lessing from the 1750s to the 1770s. In a narrow sense, the Enlightenment encompasses those figures in the eighteenth century who acknowledged the autonomy of reason, and hence of the individual, and who sought to apply reason to all areas of human existence by using literature didactically, with a view to educating as many people as possible. But ‘Enlightenment’ is also a designation for the entire age, an age which was as little uniform in its goals and beliefs as any other. The term ‘Enlightenment’ is frequently equated with a strict and exclusive rationalism. Yet it is well to remember that Pietism, so often presented merely as fervent religious enthusiasm, was indeed a significant and representative cultural force throughout the period and an integral part of the philosophical age. Philip Jakob Spener (1635–1705) had started the Pietistic movement just before the turn of the century, and August Hermann Francke (1662–1727) developed its social and educational institutions in Halle...
eBook - ePubI Think, Therefore I Am
All the Philosophy You Need to Know
- Lesley Levene(Author)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Michael O'Mara(Publisher)
...T HE A GE OF E NLIGHTENMENT A massive outpouring of intellectual, scientific and cultural activity in the eighteenth century both fostered and was fed by a range of philosophical ideas, all of which competed with each other in applying the analytical methods Isaac Newton had used so successfully in the natural world to the study of mankind. The sense that the dark clouds of ignorance could be dispelled by a rigorous questioning of traditional values explains why the period is known as the Age of Enlightenment. From now on, reason was to be the only yardstick, and who better to come up with a systematic approach than philosophers? Unsurprisingly, different philosophers reached different conclusions based on their own definitions of reason, so enlightenment took many forms, and it is clear that ideas of great moment were being discussed. Freedom and democracy were up for discussion, plus further questioning of religious beliefs and authority. Taken together with ideas about the contractual basis of rights, they would lead to all sorts of political upheavals: the American and French revolutions, to name just a couple. There was no going back. As Kant said in an essay entitled ‘Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?’ (1784), ‘Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity.’ His rallying cry was: ‘Dare to know!’ George Berkeley (1685–1753) WISE WORDS: ‘… esse is percipi [to be is to be perceived].’ – A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge Born near Kilkenny, George Berkeley was educated at Trinity College Dublin, becoming a fellow there in 1707. He was ordained a deacon in 1709 and a priest the following year. Berkeley’s most important philosophical works were published relatively early in his life: Essay towards a New Theory of Vision in 1709, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge in 1710 and Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous in 1713...
eBook - ePub- Nicholas L. Waddy(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...They made every effort to turn back the clock in Europe to a time when the ideals of the French Revolution and the naked ambition of Napoleon were unknown. The Enlightenment The Enlightenment was a major European intellectual movement in the eighteenth century. Although ultimately the forces of tradition prevented enlightened thinkers from accomplishing many of their goals, the movement still had a huge historical impact. During the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, Europeans had witnessed a bewildering array of changes, including the discovery and colonization of the New World, the Protestant Reformation and the Wars of Religion, the Scientific Revolution, the beginnings of industrialization, and the rise of absolute monarchy and representative government. Educated Europeans naturally debated whether these changes were positive or negative. By the eighteenth century, a large group of literate, cultured Europeans had formed that supported many of these changes and called for even bolder reforms. This movement gradually became known as the Enlightenment. Although it was influential throughout Europe, it was chiefly based in France. The men, and on rare occasions women, who led the Enlightenment were called philosophes, from the French word for philosophers. The philosophes were educated intellectuals from the urban middle class or the nobility. They gained notoriety either by discussing their ideas with other philosophes, or by publishing their views in books, newspapers, journals, and even novels, which were sold to an increasingly wide audience. Dissemination of the philosophes ’ views was facilitated by improvements in printing technology and the creation of a “print culture” during the eighteenth century. This print culture, in turn, helped to create a new force of decisive importance: public opinion...
eBook - ePub- Kenneth Stunkel(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Eighteenth-Century Europe Themes 3 (Issues of Critical Historiography), 5 (Breadth of Inquiry), 6 (Problematic Historiography) Historical writing in the Enlightenment had rationalistic and often polemical objectives in major centers like Britain, France, and some of the German states. With those biases noted, historians sought to expand the range of inquiry and displayed a critical attitude toward available evidence. This was possible because thought and inquiry were conducted with less interference from state and church authorities than in the past, a sign that society was becoming more secularized. More fundamental was the emergence of a common language of proof accepted and used across national boundaries, a consequence of universally acknowledged advances in science since the seventeenth century. History was widely read and appreciated more than ever before. Gibbon and Voltaire considered its truths provisional and probable. History for them was a guide to truth, not a source of certainties, which justified calling them “philosophical” historians, but Gibbon also believed history is a “science of causes and effects.” The study of history beyond the confines of Europe widened the scope of human experience, which suited perfectly a writer like Voltaire with his belief that experience is the touchstone of knowledge. Eighteenth-century confidence from about mid-century that linear progress was consistent reality in human history alternated with a cyclical version of the past in which periods of authority, faith, and superstition alternated with periods of freedom, rationality, and science. A historical lineup illustrating these alternating opposites were Greece and Rome (reason), the Middle Ages (faith), the Renaissance (reason), the Reformation (faith), and Voltaire’s age of Louis XIV (reason). Both Gibbon and Voltaire were conscientious about sources, the former far more than the latter...
eBook - ePub- Omi Hodwitz, Omi Hodwitz(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Chapter 4 The Age of Enlightenment and human nature Josh Ritchie, Omi Hodwitz and Mihaela Karst DOI: 10.4324/9781003197980-4 Introduction Enter the Age of Enlightenment or Reason, a period of philosophy, culture, and change. Although the exact date range is open for debate, it is largely agreed that the Age of Enlightenment took place in and around the 1700s (Crocker, 1969). It was an era when some of history’s most influential philosophers created theories that continue to resonate today. Enlightenment scholars began to consider the value of humanity and create lasting definitions regarding quality of life and social responsibilities. It was at this time that profound notions around property, equality, and control originated. Although it may not be immediately apparent, the philosophies and theories that arose from the Age of Enlightenment helped shape our modern justice systems. The ideas that were born from or developed within this era would have a lasting impact on our understanding of the sources of deviance, the role of the individual and society in ensuring human dignity and security, and the limits and capacities of a just system of social control. This chapter focuses on the philosophical and practical foundations of criminology and the modern criminal justice system established or elaborated upon in the Age of Enlightenment. Enlightenment philosophers made several contributions to criminology and criminal justice, including advancing our understanding of key concepts such as human nature, the state of nature, and the social contract. These concepts are integral to historical and contemporary perceptions of deviance, social control, and responses to crime and, thus, are a necessary focus of any discussion addressing these topics. The state of nature refers to the status of humanity when free of laws, rules, and other additional controls placed on individuals existing in a society. 1 Simply put, it refers to how we exist when left to our own devices...
