The Enlightenment: Key Concepts and Philosophers
Origin of Name: Refers to the light it throws, the reason mysterious to address issues.
Authors: Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant.
Key Features of the Enlightenment
- Unshakable faith in human reason.
- The Enlightenment philosophers considered it their mission to build a base for morality, religion, and ethics in accordance with reason.
- Some were defenders of nature, considering it nearly the same as reason.
- They believed that evil resides in society, but that man is naturally good.
Encyclopedia: (1751-1772) 38 volumes with contributions from Enlightenment philosophers.
Reaction Against Authority
The Enlightenment represented a reaction against the authority of the Church, the King, and the nobility (the old order), following models such as English natural science intellectuals (Newton) and British philosophy (Locke). The reason for the supposed enlightened rejection of any other criterion of validity of knowledge.
Rationalism
Rationalism is a philosophical doctrine that holds that reality is rational and therefore understandable through reason. It is opposed to empiricism.
Cultural Optimism
Cultural optimism was a dominant idea in Western Europe until about two decades ago, which argues that development is inherently good.
Importance of Education
The new mentality abandoned pessimistic beliefs arising from original sin to embrace confidence-building in human nature and its possibilities for progress. This influenced both education and government. It sought to shed “light” on the universal laws that were previously in the hands of the clergy, thereby halting the progress of science. Through proper education, humanity could be changed, improving its nature.
Back to Nature
Nature meant almost the same as reason, since it comes from nature, as opposed to the Church and civilization. Being good by nature, man is naturally good (Rousseau).
Natural Religion
Religion should be placed in accordance with the natural reason of men. For most of the Enlightenment philosophers, it was irrational to conceive of a world without God. They sought to eliminate all the irrational dogmas of Christianity added throughout history.
Deism
Deism comes from the idea that God created the world a long time ago, but since then, He has not appeared before the world, thereby reducing God to a higher being who only makes Himself known to men by nature and its laws.
Human Rights
A major point of Enlightenment philosophy, human rights did not conform with theoretical views on man’s place in society. Enlightenment thinkers actively fought for natural rights, fighting censorship, and advocating for freedom of the press to ensure the individual’s right to think freely and express their ideas concerning religion, morals, and ethics. They also opposed black slavery and favored more humane treatment of offenders.
Status of Women
Though rights were extended to all citizens, only men were considered citizens. The first examples of the struggle of women are from the French Revolution (1789), although two years before, Condorcet wrote about women’s rights, saying they had the same natural rights as men. During the revolution of 1789, women fought actively against the feudal society, demanding the same political rights as men and seeking changes in the laws of marriage and the social status of women.