Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment

 The Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Enlightenment and

the Age of Reason
 European social and intellectual movement during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, driven by a mindset that
favoured science and reason over religious beliefs.
 The thinkers, writers, and artists during the Enlightenment had a
predisposition towards logic, scientific enquiry, and individual
liberty.
Period

 There is an ongoing debate on the timeline of the Enlightenment.

 France - 1715 - 1789 /with the beginning of the French Revolution/
 1637 – 1804/ the death of Immanuel Kant/
 1687- 1804
Origin

The English name Age of Enlightenment is a translation inspired by

 the French Siècle des Lumières and
 the German Aufklärung,
centred on the idea of light, both referring to the Enlightenment in
Europe.
 Background
 The inspiration behind the Enlightenment mindset is usually traced back
to thinkers like Francis Bacon (1561– 1626), Descartes (1596–1650),
Voltaire (1694–1778), and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716).
 The philosophy of Immanuel Kant is considered to be an important
philosophy from the Age of Enlightenment. Kant's essay 'What Is
Enlightenment?' (1784) defines Enlightenment as the liberation of
mankind from self-imposed oppression.
 The scientific revolution brought forth by the discoveries and inventions
of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), and
Newton challenged the mainstream religious beliefs and dogmas of the
time.
 Literature
 The Age of Enlightenment was part of the formative age of the novel,
starting from the 1500s. Although the rise of the novel wasn't
complete until the nineteenth century and novelists were less popular
during that time, there have been great works that have now secured
their place in the Western Canon.
 Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) in Spain, François Rabelais (around
1490– 1553) in France, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) in
Germany, and the English writer Henry Fielding (1707–1754) are
celebrated novelists who are widely studied today.
 Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) and Jonathan Swift were among the
prominent English writers of the Enlightenment period who attempted
to educate and inform the public.
 Ipsa scientia potestas est (Knowledge itself is power).
Francis Bacon, Meditations Sacrae (1597)

 1637 - the year René Descartes's (1596–1650) Discourse on the

Method was published. It contained Descartes's most quoted phrase,
'Cogito, ergo sum', which translates as 'I think, therefore I am',
reflecting the philosophical enquiry into knowledge and its origins.

 Alexander Pope (1688–1744) wrote in a couplet, 'God said, Let

Newton be! and All was Light'. The lines perhaps encapsulate the
Enlightenment sentiment that favoured reason over blind faith.