Background and Basic Tenets
The scientific and intellectual developments of the 17th cent.—the discoveries of Isaac Newton Newton, Sir Isaac, 1642–1727, English mathematician and natural philosopher (physicist), who is considered by many the greatest scientist that ever lived.
..... Click the link for more information. , the rationalism of Réné Descartes Descartes, René (rənā` dākärt`), Lat.
..... Click the link for more information. , the skepticism of Pierre Bayle Bayle, Pierre (pyĕr bāl), 1647–1706, French philosopher.
..... Click the link for more information. , the pantheism of Benedict de Spinoza Spinoza, Baruch or Benedict (spinō`zə)
..... Click the link for more information. , and the empiricism of Francis Bacon Bacon, Francis, 1561–1626, English philosopher, essayist, and statesman, b. London, educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and at Gray's Inn. He was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper to Queen Elizabeth I.
..... Click the link for more information. and John Locke Locke, John (lŏk), 1632–1704, English philosopher, founder of British empiricism.
..... Click the link for more information. —fostered the belief in natural law and universal order and the confidence in human reason that spread to influence all of 18th-century society. Currents of thought were many and varied, but certain ideas may be characterized as pervading and dominant. A rational and scientific approach to religious, social, political, and economic issues promoted a secular view of the world and a general sense of progress and perfectibility.
The major champions of these concepts were the philosophes, who popularized and promulgated the new ideas for the general reading public. These proponents of the Enlightenment shared certain basic attitudes. With supreme faith in rationality, they sought to discover and to act upon universally valid principles governing humanity, nature, and society. They variously attacked spiritual and scientific authority, dogmatism, intolerance, censorship, and economic and social restraints. They considered the state the proper and rational instrument of progress. The extreme rationalism and skepticism of the age led naturally to deism; the same qualities played a part in bringing the later reaction of romanticism. The Encyclopédie Encyclopédie (äNsēklôpādē`), the work of the French Encyclopedists, or philosophes.
..... Click the link for more information. of Denis Diderot Diderot, Denis (dənē` dēdərō`)
..... Click the link for more information. epitomized the spirit of the Age of Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, as it is also called.
An International System of Thought
Centered in Paris, the movement gained international character at cosmopolitan salons. Masonic lodges played an important role in disseminating the new ideas throughout Europe. Foremost in France among proponents of the Enlightenment were baron de Montesquieu Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de la Brède et de
..... Click the link for more information. , Voltaire Voltaire, François Marie Arouet de (fräNswä` märē` ärwā` də vôltĕr`)
..... Click the link for more information. , and comte de Buffon Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de (zhôrzh lwē ləklĕrk` kôNt də büfôN`)
..... Click the link for more information. ; Baron Turgot Turgot, Anne Robert Jacques (än rōbĕr` zhäk türgō`)
..... Click the link for more information. and other physiocrats physiocrats (fĭz`ēəkrăts'), school of French thinkers in the 18th cent. who evolved the first complete system of economics.
..... Click the link for more information. ; and Jean Jacques Rousseau Rousseau, Jean Jacques (zhäN zhäk r
..... Click the link for more information. , who greatly influenced romanticism. Many opposed the extreme materialism of Julien de La Mettrie La Mettrie, Julien Offray de (zhülyăN` ôfrā` də lä mĕtrē`)
..... Click the link for more information. , baron d' Holbach Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry, baron d' (pôl äNrē` tērē` bärôN` dôlbäk`), Ger.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Claude Helvétius Helvétius, Claude Adrien (hĕlvē`shəs, Fr.
..... Click the link for more information. .
In England the coffeehouses and the newly flourishing press stimulated social and political criticism, such as the urbane commentary of Joseph Addison Addison, Joseph, 1672–1719, English essayist, poet, and statesman. He was educated at Charterhouse, where he was a classmate of Richard Steele, and at Oxford, where he became a distinguished classical scholar.
..... Click the link for more information. and Sir Richard Steele Steele, Sir Richard, 1672–1729, English essayist and playwright, b. Dublin. After studying at Charterhouse and Oxford, he entered the army in 1694 and rose to the rank of captain by 1700.
..... Click the link for more information. . Jonathan Swift Swift, Jonathan, 1667–1745, English author, b. Dublin. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest satirists in the English language.
Early Life and Works
..... Click the link for more information. and Alexander Pope Pope, Alexander, 1688–1744, English poet. Although his literary reputation declined somewhat during the 19th cent., he is now recognized as the greatest poet of the 18th cent. and the greatest verse satirist in English.
..... Click the link for more information. were influential Tory satirists. Lockean theories of learning by sense perception were further developed by David Hume Hume, David (hy
m), 1711–76, Scottish philosopher and historian.
..... Click the link for more information. . The philosophical view of human rationality as being in harmony with the universe created a hospitable climate for the laissez-faire economics of Adam Smith Smith, Adam, 1723–90, Scottish economist, educated at Glasgow and Oxford. He became professor of moral philosophy at the Univ. of Glasgow in 1752, and while teaching there wrote his Theory of Moral Sentiments
..... Click the link for more information. and for the utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham Bentham, Jeremy, 1748–1832, English philosopher, jurist, political theorist, and founder of utilitarianism . Educated at Oxford, he was trained as a lawyer and was admitted to the bar, but he never practiced; he devoted himself to the scientific analysis of
..... Click the link for more information. . Historical writing gained secular detachment in the work of Edward Gibbon Gibbon, Edward, 1737–94, English historian, author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. His childhood was sickly, and he had little formal education but read enormously and omnivorously.
..... Click the link for more information. .
In Germany the universities became centers of the Enlightenment (Ger. Aufklärung). Moses Mendelssohn Mendelssohn, Moses, 1729–86, German-Jewish philosopher; grandfather of Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn . He was a leader in the movement for cultural assimilation.
..... Click the link for more information. set forth a doctrine of rational progress; G. E. Lessing Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim (gôt`hôlt ā`fräĭm)
..... Click the link for more information. advanced a natural religion of morality; Johann Herder Herder, Johann Gottfried von (yō`hän gôt`frēt fən hĕr`dər)
..... Click the link for more information. developed a philosophy of cultural nationalism. The supreme importance of the individual formed the basis of the ethics of Immanuel Kant Kant, Immanuel (ĭmän`
..... Click the link for more information. . Italian representatives of the age included Cesare Beccaria Beccaria, Cesare Bonesana, marchese di
..... Click the link for more information. and Giambattista Vico Vico, Giovanni Battista (jōvän`nē bät-tē`stä vē`kō)
..... Click the link for more information. . From America, Thomas Paine Paine, Thomas, 1737–1809, Anglo-American political theorist and writer, b. Thetford, Norfolk, England. The son of a working-class Quaker, he became an excise officer and was dismissed from the service after leading (1772) agitation for higher salaries.
..... Click the link for more information. , Thomas Jefferson Jefferson, Thomas, 1743–1826, 3d President of the United States (1801–9), author of the Declaration of Independence, and apostle of agrarian democracy.
Early Life
Jefferson was born on Apr.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Benjamin Franklin 2)). The phenomenon of electricity interested him deeply, and in 1748 he turned his printing business over to his foreman, intending to devote his life to science. His experiment of flying a kite in a thunderstorm, which showed that lightning is an electrical discharge (but which
..... Click the link for more information. exerted vast international influence.
Some philosophers at first proposed that their theories be implemented by "enlightened despots"—rulers who would impose reform by authoritarian means. Czar Peter I of Russia anticipated the trend, and Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II Joseph II, 1741–90, Holy Roman emperor (1765–90), king of Bohemia and Hungary (1780–90), son of Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I , whom he succeeded. He was the first emperor of the house of Hapsburg-Lorraine (see Hapsburg ).
..... Click the link for more information. was the prototype of the enlightened despot; others were Frederick II Frederick II or Frederick the Great, 1712–86, king of Prussia (1740–86), son and successor of Frederick William I .
Early Life
..... Click the link for more information. of Prussia, Catherine II Catherine II or Catherine the Great, 1729–96, czarina of Russia (1762–96).
Rise to Power
A German princess, the daughter of Christian Augustus, prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, she emerged from the obscurity of her
..... Click the link for more information. of Russia, and Charles III Charles III, 1716–88, king of Spain (1759–88) and of Naples and Sicily (1735–59), son of Philip V and Elizabeth Farnese . Recognized as duke of Parma and Piacenza in 1731, he relinquished the duchies to Austria after Spain reconquered (1734) Naples
..... Click the link for more information. of Spain. The proponents of the Enlightenment have often been held responsible for the French Revolution. Certainly the Age of Enlightenment can be seen as a major demarcation in the emergence of the modern world.
Bibliography
See E. Cassirer, The Philosophy of the Enlightenment (tr. 1951, repr. 1955); P. Hazard, The European Mind: The Critical Years, 1690–1715 (tr. 1953, repr. 1963) and European Thought in the Eighteenth Century (tr. 1954, repr. 1963); F. E. Manuel, The Eighteenth Century Confronts the Gods (1959, repr. 1967); P. Gay, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation (2 vol., 1966–69); A. Cobban, ed., Europe in the Age of the Enlightenment (1969); L. G. Crocker, ed., The Age of Enlightenment (1969); N. Hampson, The Enlightenment (1970); F. Venturi, Utopia and Reform in the Enlightenment (1971); J. Engell, The Creative Imagination: Enlightenment to Romanticism (1981); W. E. Rex, The Attraction of the Contrary: Essays on the Literature of the French Enlightenment (1987).
Enlightenment
European intellectual movement of the 17th–18th century in which ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and man were blended into a worldview that inspired revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and politics. Central to Enlightenment thought were the use and celebration of reason. For Enlightenment thinkers, received authority, whether in science or religion, was to be subject to the investigation of unfettered minds. In the sciences and mathematics, the logics of induction and deduction made possible the creation of a sweeping new cosmology. The search for a rational religion led to Deism; the more radical products of the application of reason to religion were skepticism, atheism, and materialism. The Enlightenment produced modern secularized theories of psychology and ethics by men such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, and it also gave rise to radical political theories. Locke, Jeremy Bentham, J.-J. Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Thomas Jefferson all contributed to an evolving critique of the authoritarian state and to sketching the outline of a higher form of social organization based on natural rights. One of the Enlightenment's enduring legacies is the belief that human history is a record of general progress.
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