Enlightenment

Enlightenment
• What, When & Why
• A philosophical and cultural movement begun in seventeenth century English
philosophy but developed throughout Europe in the eighteenth century.

• Reason and logic instead of irrational and dogmatic thoughts & practices, demoted
the realms of feeling and the imagination.
• The Enlightenment was marked by a refusal to accept old knowledge, ideas and
suppositions.

• Principal Belief: The power and authority of reason in intellectual and practical life.
Outcome
• Rise of empiricism & skepticism.

• Gave rise to tradition of critical thought, empirical research, use of reason, urging social
reforms.

• It relied on the use logic, reason, experimentation and observation to reach

conclusions Scientific enlightenment.

• The political Enlightenment examined the nature of human society, government and
power.
What catalysed it?

• Print technology: Helped in circulation of key ideas, lead to emergence of

compilation by Diderot and Jean D'Alembert.

• Rise in Middle & Upper Middle class (bourgeoisie)

Michel Foucault’s view
• He sees it as neither an epoch nor body of doctrine but an 'attitude' or critical
consciousness.

• Our connection with the Enlightenment as 'the permanent reactivation of an attitude -

that is, of a philosophical ethos that could be described as a permanent critique of our
historical era.
Thankyou