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The Enlightenment
(1685-1850)

By: Shebra Sanders

Global History from the 15th Century

Instructor: Arthur Finkle

June 21, 2013

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The Enlightenment, also referred to as, the Age of Reason, came about on the heels of

the prosperity and splendor of the sixteenth century. The seventeenth century brought

civil wars, famine and several crises that tore Europe apart. These events also made some

individuals want to do away with the traditional ways of thinking and behaving and

worshipping. As literate, middle-class men and women gained confidence in being able

to reason for themselves, to understand the world without calling on traditional

authorities, and to publicly criticize what they found distasteful or wrong, contemporaries

recognized that they were living in an increasingly enlightened age.1

Part of what gave Enlightenment thinkers such influence in Europe and beyond was

that they wanted not just to convey new ideas to the elite but also to spread them widely.

They hoped to change their contemporaries worldviews and to transform political and

social institutions.2 Men and women Enlightenment thinkers gathered in public places

they called salons, in cafs, theaters, they published newspapers, books, and pamphlets to

communicate with each other and the public in general. The Enlightenment period

produced inventions, scientific discoveries, laws, wars and revolutions. The American

and French Revolutions were directly inspired by Enlightenment ideals and respectively

marked the peak of its influence and the beginning of its decline.3

Centuries before the Enlightenment era, scientists Nicolaus Copernicus(1473-1542)

and Galileo Galilei(1564-1642) sought to understand the heavens. They were both

mathematicians and astronomers, and by making their charts and calculations they came

to conclusions that went against traditional thinking. When Galileo confirmed

Copernicuss claims that the earth revolved around the sun, he was put on trial for heresy

and sentenced to house arrest. During the early Enlightenment an influential group of
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scholars committed themselves to critical thinking and observation . They adopted a

method for scientific inquiry laid out by the philosopher Sir Francis Bacon(1561-1626),

who claimed that real science entailed the formation of hypotheses that could be tested in

carefully controlled experiments. With the new scientific method being practiced,

scientists like Sir Isaac Newton defined new laws of motion and matter that went against

and mocked old ideas as obsolete. Through observations and experiment, Newton wrote

his Principia Mathematica which set forth the laws of motion, including the famous law

of gravitation, which simultaneously explained falling bodies on earth and planetary

motion.4 Perhaps equally important was John Lockes Essay Concerning Human

Understanding. This work, along with Newtons Principia Mathematica provided the

scientific, mathematical and philosophical groundwork for the Enlightenments major

advances.5

Although the Enlightenment may have originated in European nations but its

influenced reached other countries, so there was no unified Enlightenment; instead

the movement could have been referred to as the French Enlightenment, Spanish

Enlightenment, Scottish Enlightenment, etc. Enlightenment thinkers very often

had different approaches, they seldom agreed on ideas. Locke differed from Hume,

Rousseau from Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson from Frederick the Great. Their differences

and disagreements, though, emerged out of the common Enlightenment themes of

rational questioning and belief in progress in dialogue.6

Enlightenment thinkers believed in the power of human reason and the

perfectibility of humankind; they rejected the medieval belief in mans sinful

nature and helplessness in the face of earthly evils. Such thinkers included the
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French writers Voltaire(1694-1778) and Denis Diderot (1713-1784) and the

Scottish economist Adam Smith (1723-1790). But these writers also called attention

to the evils and flaws of human society: Voltaire criticized the torture of criminals,

Diderot denounced the despotic tendencies of the French kings Louis XIV and

Louis XV, and Smith exposed the inefficiency of mercantilism.7

Americans should study the Enlightenment because it defined most of the ideals the U. S.

was founded on. The American colonies were separated geographically from the

aristocrats they wanted independence from, while Europeans were not. The Founding

Fathers, especially Thomas Jefferson, echoed the ideals of the Enlightenment thinkers of

England, and to some extent, France. The God Jefferson summons in the Declaration of

Independence is the same God Rousseau wrote of in his works.

Enlightenment thinking was found all over Europe, however the impact was varied.

Enlightened thought flourished in commercial centers like Amsterdam and Edinburgh

and in colonial ports like Philadelphia and Boston.8 As education became more

accessible to the general public, and not just a privilege for the elite, literacy rates

increased, which in turn generated increased need for books, magazines and other

publications. These publications were not always the product of high intellectuals, such

as Voltaire or Rousseau, but from sensationalist essayists,9 who wrote of corruption in

government and business , as well as sex and pornography, which sold well. Some even

mocked the church and the royal family (Louis XIV being spanked, Marie Antionette

having sex with her priest). Such works displayed the seamier side of the

Enlightenment, but they also revealed a willingness (on the part of high and low

intellectuals alike) to explore modes of thought that defied established beliefs and
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institutions.10

Coffee houses, book clubs and salons were established throughout Europe. In

England, businessman as well as well-to-do commoners gathered to discuss things like

literature, stock prices, technology and government. In Paris, women of the elite hosted

salons, where they and others were free to speak their mind. Aspiring journalists

frequently attended these public gatherings with hopes of finding jobs or getting

commissions for their work. Also, at this time, probably as a result of the Enlightenment,

libraries now opened to the public.11

Although Enlightenment thinkers took money from the aristocracy many of them

challenged traditional class distinctions that were a common part of European life.

Philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) and economist Adam Smith had similar beliefs that

everyone was basically born equal, but with unequal opportunities most were not able to

rise to higher social levels. However, Locke and Smith believed that a mixed set of

social and political institutions was necessary, and they did not believe women could act

as independent rational individuals in the same way that all men, presumably could.12

The Enlightenment movement set the path to Romanticism, but 19th century

Liberalism and Classicism, not to mention 20th century Modernism, all owe a heavy debt

to the thinkers of the Enlightenment.13

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Notes

1. Robert Tignor et al., Worlds Together Worlds Apart, 3rd ed., vol. 2 (New York: W. W.
Norton & Company, 2011), 543.

2. Tignor et al., Worlds Together Worlds Apart, 542.

3. "Enlightenment," The History Channel Website, "The High Enlightenment: 1730-

1780, accessed June 23, 2013, http://www.history.com/topics/enlightenment.

4. Robert Tignor et al., Worlds Together Worlds Apart, 3rd ed., vol. 2 (New York: W. W.
Norton & Company, 2011), 544-545.

5. "Enlightenment," The History Channel Website, "The High Enlightenment: 1730-

1780, accessed June 23, 2013, http://www.history.com/topics/enlightenment.

6. "Enlightenment," The History Channel Website, "The High Enlightenment: 1730-

1780, accessed June 23, 2013, http://www.history.com/topics/enlightenment.

7. Robert Tignor et al., Worlds Together Worlds Apart, 3rd ed., vol. 2 (New York: W. W.
Norton & Company, 2011), 545-546.

8. Tignor et al., Worlds Together Worlds Apart, 546.

9. Tignor et al., Worlds Together Worlds Apart, 546.

10. Tignor et al., Worlds Together Worlds Apart, 546.

11. Tignor et al., Worlds Together Worlds Apart, 547.

12. Tignor et al., Worlds Together Worlds Apart, 547.

13. "Enlightenment," The History Channel Website, "The Late Enlightenment and
Beyond: 1780-1815, accessed June 23, 2013,
http://www.history.com/topics/enlightenment.
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Bibliography

"Enlightenment." The History Channel Website. Accessed June 23, 2013.

http://www.history.com/topics/enlightenment.

Tignor, Robert, Jeremy Adelman, Stephen Aron, Stephen Kotkin, Suzanne Marchand,
Gyan Prakash, and Michael Tsin. Worlds Together Worlds Apart. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New
York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011.