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- Dictionaryenlightenment/ɪnˈlʌɪtənm(ə)nt/
noun
- 1. the action of enlightening or the state of being enlightened: "Robbie looked to me for enlightenment"
- 2. a European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. It was heavily influenced by 17th-century philosophers such as Descartes, Locke, and Newton, and its prominent figures included Kant, Goethe, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Adam Smith.
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Learn the meaning of enlightenment as a noun, with synonyms, examples, and word history. Find out how enlightenment relates to philosophy, Buddhism, and rationalism.
ENLIGHTENMENT definition: 1. the state of understanding something: 2. in Hinduism and Buddhism, the highest spiritual state…. Learn more.
- 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 human progress. Learn about its origins, ideas, figures, and impact on art, philosophy, and politics.
Enlightenment can refer to the act or state of being enlightened, or the philosophical movement of the 18th century that valued reason and progress. Learn more about the origin, history, and examples of enlightenment in different contexts.
Feb 29, 2024 · The Enlightenment was a revolution in thought in Europe and North America from the late 17th to the late 18th century. It involved new approaches in philosophy, science, and politics, and championed the human capacity for reason as the tool for progress and happiness.
- Mark Cartwright
Enlightenment can mean the act or state of being enlightened, or a spiritual state of awakening in Buddhism and Hinduism. Learn more about the word origin, synonyms, collocations, and usage examples from Collins English Dictionary.
Enlightenment is knowledge or understanding of something, or the process of making somebody understand it. It can also refer to the 18th century period of intellectual and scientific progress in Europe.
