The Enlightenment: Reason, Science, and Social Change
Background: The Enlightenment
The last third of the eighteenth century heralds a broad movement called the Enlightenment (or Age of Enlightenment) with particular and common characteristics, implemented in various fields of human history. It is used to define a phrase from Kant: Sapere aude! or Have the courage to use your own understanding! Enlightened thinkers relied on reason, a rationalist legacy of thinkers like Descartes, Malebranche, Spinoza, and Leibniz, but limited by the reason of empiricist philosophers Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. The Enlightenment appeared first in England, then in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
The spirit of the Enlightenment manifested itself through the influence of the new science. The influence of Newtonian theory of gravitation is general; all agreed on:
- The starting point is the unique experiential phenomena.
- The correct method for its implementation would be inductive.
Newton caused the collapse of Aristotelian physics. Copernicus had removed the Earth from its leading position, marking the beginning of another conception of the universe. Tycho Brahe provided many contributions to posterity. Kepler had explained the motion of celestial bodies according to mathematical principles. Galileo cemented astronomy observation and developed a system of terrestrial mechanics. Newton summarized the above and showed that celestial bodies and terrestrial phenomena are subject to the same effects and causes, to the same physical laws.
Reason and Religion
In the Enlightenment, reason opposed natural religion and revealed religion, leading to radical differences. The rejection of dogmatism prevents and removes metaphysical prejudice. It is man who is saved with a rationally ordered life, not God; it is man who makes an ethical sense to life, not the divine will. This deism is one of the great innovations of the Enlightenment.
Social Coexistence and Progress
There are also new approaches in this age of social coexistence. The idea of progress for humanity appears: scientific and technical progress for a man who lives in community at large. We analyze the past to not undertake the same mistakes again; this is the role reserved for history. The image of a man isolated and oppressed changes to a conception of citizenship embedded in a society that changes the political structures. The fall of absolutism and free citizen participation are clustered in families, in rights and duties of their social environment.
Dissemination of Ideas
The widespread dissemination of these ideas is through the academies, the Masonic lodges, essays, pamphlets, letters, and especially the encyclopedia.
Key Figures of the Enlightenment
With regard to the most outstanding figures in the Enlightenment, we can point to Montesquieu, with his Spirit of Laws, where he explains that all the laws are rooted in physical, social, and political diversifications according to different cultural settings. Voltaire insists on the need to eliminate absurd beliefs and replace them with life-enriching activities for men. In Germany, the phenomenon of Enlightenment is represented by Christian Wolf. In Spain, Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos stands out. The Spanish Enlightenment is characterized by the development of scholarly studies of mental physical theories, by critics to mentalities and outdated customs, and an exaltation of personal and social freedom.
All elements of Enlightenment spread thanks to the Encyclopedia of Diderot.