Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
* * * * NOTE FROM THE LINGUISTICS MODERATOR * * * *
The Age of Enlightenment (sometimes just called "the Enlightenment") was a period in European history when there was a strong emphasis on questioning traditional customs, institutions and morals, including--prominently--religions and systems of government. Reason was regarded as the source of authority. The movement started in northwestern Europe but eventually spread widely throughout Europe, as far as Italy and Russia, and to the American colonies. All of the signatories of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Bill of Rights were acknowledged as motivated by principles associated with the Enlightenment.
There was a strong aspiration toward the consolidation of government, the primacy of the nation-state, and greater rights for (those then known as) the common people; the reduction or revocation of the authority of the aristocracy and the established churches; and in general the elimination of superstitious, oppressive and reactionary forces.
The term "Enlightenment" or "Age of Enlightenment" was not actually used in English until the mid-19th Century. Since it was comprised of no single movement or school of thought, and many of its philosophies were inconsistent or downright contradictory, there is no consensus on the boundaries of the period. It is customarily defined as the 18th century, but some writers include the late 17th century, which by itself is usually called "The Age of Reason," and its beginning may be marked by Britain's "Glorious Revolution" in 1688. Some scholars even trace it back to Descartes in the early 17th century. Its conclusion is variously marked by specific events as far apart as the Napoleonic wars of the early 18th century and the French Revolution of 1789.
The liberalism of our era--both the leftism that co-opted the name and the classic liberalism that had to rename itself as libertarianism--trace their lineage to the principles of the Enlightenment. Scholars have given the Enlightenment credit for the advent of the scientific method, free-market capitalism, republican democracy, freedom of the press, religious tolerance, and modernism in a number of disciplines.
Enlightenment was an attitude rather than a system of shared beliefs, which Immanuel Kant described succinctly as, "the freedom to use one's own intelligence."
Some of these details and catchphrases were taken from the Wikipedia article on this topic.
The Age of Enlightenment (sometimes just called "the Enlightenment") was a period in European history when there was a strong emphasis on questioning traditional customs, institutions and morals, including--prominently--religions and systems of government. Reason was regarded as the source of authority. The movement started in northwestern Europe but eventually spread widely throughout Europe, as far as Italy and Russia, and to the American colonies. All of the signatories of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Bill of Rights were acknowledged as motivated by principles associated with the Enlightenment.
There was a strong aspiration toward the consolidation of government, the primacy of the nation-state, and greater rights for (those then known as) the common people; the reduction or revocation of the authority of the aristocracy and the established churches; and in general the elimination of superstitious, oppressive and reactionary forces.
The term "Enlightenment" or "Age of Enlightenment" was not actually used in English until the mid-19th Century. Since it was comprised of no single movement or school of thought, and many of its philosophies were inconsistent or downright contradictory, there is no consensus on the boundaries of the period. It is customarily defined as the 18th century, but some writers include the late 17th century, which by itself is usually called "The Age of Reason," and its beginning may be marked by Britain's "Glorious Revolution" in 1688. Some scholars even trace it back to Descartes in the early 17th century. Its conclusion is variously marked by specific events as far apart as the Napoleonic wars of the early 18th century and the French Revolution of 1789.
The liberalism of our era--both the leftism that co-opted the name and the classic liberalism that had to rename itself as libertarianism--trace their lineage to the principles of the Enlightenment. Scholars have given the Enlightenment credit for the advent of the scientific method, free-market capitalism, republican democracy, freedom of the press, religious tolerance, and modernism in a number of disciplines.
Enlightenment was an attitude rather than a system of shared beliefs, which Immanuel Kant described succinctly as, "the freedom to use one's own intelligence."
Some of these details and catchphrases were taken from the Wikipedia article on this topic.
