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An overview of the intellectual and philosophical movement in 17th and 18th century Europe, featuring rationalism, empiricism, and political ideals. Learn about the major figures, publications, topics, and legacy of the Enlightenment.
- Overview
- The age of reason: human understanding of the universe
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Historians place the Enlightenment in Europe (with a strong emphasis on France) during the late 17th and the 18th centuries, or, more comprehensively, between the Glorious Revolution in 1688 and the French Revolution of 1789. It represents a phase in the intellectual history of Europe and also programs of reform, inspired by a belief in the possibility of a better world, that outlined specific targets for criticism and programs of action.
What led to the Enlightenment?
The roots of the Enlightenment can be found in the humanism of the Renaissance, with its emphasis on the study of Classical literature. The Protestant Reformation, with its antipathy toward received religious dogma, was another precursor. Perhaps the most important sources of what became the Enlightenment were the complementary rational and empirical methods of discovering truth that were introduced by the scientific revolution.
Renaissance
Learn more about the Renaissance.
Reformation
The powers and uses of reason had first been explored by the philosophers of ancient Greece. The Romans adopted and preserved much of Greek culture, notably including the ideas of a rational natural order and natural law. Amid the turmoil of empire, however, a new concern arose for personal salvation, and the way was paved for the triumph of the Christian religion. Christian thinkers gradually found uses for their Greco-Roman heritage. The system of thought known as Scholasticism, culminating in the work of Thomas Aquinas, resurrected reason as a tool of understanding. In Thomas’s presentation, Aristotle provided the method for obtaining that truth which was ascertainable by reason alone; since Christian revelation contained a higher truth, Thomas placed the natural law evident to reason subordinate to, but not in conflict with, eternal law and divine law.
The intellectual and political edifice of Christianity, seemingly impregnable in the Middle Ages, fell in turn to the assaults made on it by humanism, the Renaissance, and the Protestant Reformation. Humanism bred the experimental science of Francis Bacon, Nicolaus Copernicus, and Galileo and the mathematical investigations of René Descartes, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and Isaac Newton. The Renaissance rediscovered much of Classical culture and revived the notion of humans as creative beings, and the Reformation, more directly but in the long run no less effectively, challenged the monolithic authority of the Roman Catholic Church. For Martin Luther, as for Bacon or Descartes, the way to truth lay in the application of human reason. Both the Renaissance and the Reformation were less movements for intellectual liberty than changes of authority, but, since they appealed to different authorities, they contributed to the breakdown of the community of thought. Received authority, whether of Ptolemy in the sciences or of the church in matters of the spirit, was to be subject to the probings of unfettered minds.
Britannica Quiz
European History
Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that emphasized reason, nature, and humanity. It challenged religious and political authority, developed modern science and philosophy, and inspired revolutionary changes in art and politics.
Dec 16, 2009 · Learn about the Enlightenment, a movement of rational thinking and progress in 18th-century Europe. Explore its origins, key figures, achievements, challenges and legacy in history and culture.
- Missy Sullivan
- 3 min
Feb 29, 2024 · Learn about the Enlightenment, a revolution in thought in Europe and North America from the late 17th to the late 18th century. Explore the origins, philosophers, and ideas of the Age of Reason.
- Mark Cartwright
Toward the middle of the eighteenth century a shift in thinking occurred. This shift is known as the Enlightenment. You have probably already heard of some important Enlightenment figures, like Rousseau, Diderot and Voltaire.
- The original source: Cite this page as: Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, "The Age of Enlightenment, an introduction," in Smarthistory, Januar...
- The Scientific Revolution isn't necessarily the same thing as the Enlightenment, but instead a conjoined movement that affected it. The thought pro...
- It is a nice assumption to make. While there is no information about a direct reference to veristic style from Roman period, we may argue that the...
- science then, as science now, challenges the assertions of those who claim the right to wield power. science attempts to look at experientialy veri...
- These were different. The scientific revolution was about method and the WAYS to arrive at truth. The Enlightenment was about the very nature of tr...
- The revolutionaries BECAME the government, and there was no-one to charge them with murder or mass-murder.
- It was an essential feature of the European Renaissance to praise recent discoveries and achievements as a means to assert the independence of mode...
Learn about the Enlightenment, a philosophical movement in Europe that celebrated reason, knowledge, freedom, and happiness. Explore its roots, leaders, achievements, and legacy in history and culture.
Aug 20, 2010 · This entry describes the main tendencies of Enlightenment thought in the following main sections: (1) The True: Science, Epistemology, and Metaphysics in the Enlightenment; (2) The Good: Political Theory, Ethical Theory and Religion in the Enlightenment; (3) The Beautiful: Aesthetics in the Enlightenment. 1.