{"id":2508,"date":"2017-07-18T19:41:44","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T19:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-worldhistory\/chapter\/the-age-of-enlightenment-2\/"},"modified":"2017-09-14T14:01:52","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T14:01:52","slug":"the-age-of-enlightenment-2","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-worldhistory\/chapter\/the-age-of-enlightenment-2\/","title":{"raw":"The Age of Enlightenment","rendered":"The Age of Enlightenment"},"content":{"raw":"<h1 id=\"section_1111\">21.1: The Age of Enlightenment<\/h1>\r\n<h2 id=\"concept_1116\">21.1.1: Enlightenment Ideals<\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"brief\">\r\n\r\nCentered on the idea that reason is the primary source of authority and legitimacy, the Enlightenment was a philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe in the 18th century.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Learning Objective<\/h3>\r\nIdentify the core ideas that drove the Age of Enlightenment\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\r\n<h3>Key Points<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>The Age of Enlightenment was a philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe in the 18th century. Centered on the idea that reason is the primary source of authority and legitimacy, this movement advocated such ideals as liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>There is little consensus on the precise beginning of the Age of Enlightenment, but the beginning of the 18th century (1701) or the middle of the 17th century (1650) are commonly identified as starting points. French historians usually place the period between 1715 and 1789.\u00a0Most scholars use the last years of the century, often choosing the French Revolution of 1789 or the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars\u00a0(1804\u201315) to date the end of the Enlightenment.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>The Enlightenment took hold in most European countries, often with a specific local emphasis. The cultural exchange during the Age of Enlightenment ran between particular European countries and also in both directions across the Atlantic.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>There were two distinct lines of Enlightenment thought. The radical Enlightenment advocated democracy, individual liberty, freedom of expression, and eradication of religious authority. A second, more moderate variety sought accommodation between reform and the traditional systems of power and faith.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Science came to play a leading role in Enlightenment discourse and thought. The Enlightenment has long been hailed as the foundation of modern Western political and intellectual culture. It brought political modernization to the West. In religion, Enlightenment era commentary was a response to the preceding century of religious conflict in Europe.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Historians of race, gender, and class note that Enlightenment ideals were not originally envisioned as universal in the today's sense of the word. Although they did eventually inspire the struggles for rights of people of color, women, or the working masses, most Enlightenment thinkers did not advocate equality for all, regardless of race, gender, or class, but rather insisted that rights and freedoms were not hereditary.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox examples\">\r\n<h3>Key Terms<\/h3>\r\n<dl class=\"key_terms\">\r\n \t<dt><strong>reductionism<\/strong><\/dt>\r\n \t<dd>Several related but distinct philosophical positions regarding the connections between theories, \"reducing\" one idea to another, more basic one. In the sciences, its methodologies attempt to explain entire systems in terms of their individual, constituent parts and interactions.<\/dd>\r\n \t<dt><strong>scientific method<\/strong><\/dt>\r\n \t<dd>A\u00a0body of techniques\u00a0for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge that apply empirical\u00a0or measurable\u00a0evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.\u00a0It has characterized natural science\u00a0since the 17th century, consisting of systematic observation, measurement, and experimentation, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.<\/dd>\r\n \t<dt><strong>cogito ergo sum<\/strong><\/dt>\r\n \t<dd>A Latin philosophical proposition by Ren\u00e9 Descartes usually translated into English as \"I think, therefore I am.\" The phrase originally appeared in his <em>Discourse on the Method. <\/em>This proposition became a fundamental element of Western philosophy, as it purported to form a secure foundation for knowledge in the face of radical doubt. While other knowledge could be a figment of imagination, deception, or mistake, Descartes asserted that the very act of doubting one's own existence served\u2014at minimum\u2014as proof of the reality of one's own mind.<\/dd>\r\n \t<dt><strong>empiricism<\/strong><\/dt>\r\n \t<dd>The theory that knowledge comes primarily from sensory experience. It emphasizes evidence, especially data gathered through experimentation and use of the scientific method.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h3>The Age of Enlightenment<\/h3>\r\nThe Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Enlightenment, was a philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe in the 18th century. Centered on the idea that reason is the primary source of authority and legitimacy, this movement advocated such ideals as liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. The Enlightenment was marked by an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy. The core ideas advocated by modern democracies, including the civil society, human and civil rights, and separation of powers, are the product of the Enlightenment. Furthermore, the sciences and academic disciplines (including social sciences and the humanities) as we know them today, based on empirical methods, are also rooted in the Age of Enlightenment. All these developments, which followed and partly overlapped with the European exploration and colonization of the Americas and the intensification of the European presence in Asia and Africa, make the Enlightenment a starting point of what some historians define as the European Moment in World History: the long period of often tragic European domination over the rest of the world.\r\n\r\nThere is little consensus on the precise beginning of the Age of Enlightenment, with the beginning of the 18th century (1701) or the middle of the 17th century (1650) often considered starting points. French historians usually place the period between 1715 and 1789, from the beginning of the reign of Louis XV\u00a0until the French Revolution. In the mid-17th century, the Enlightenment traces its origins to Descartes' <em>Discourse on Method<\/em>, published in 1637. In France, many cite the publication of Isaac Newton's <em>Principia Mathematica<\/em>\u00a0in 1687.\u00a0Some historians and philosophers have argued that the beginning of the Enlightenment is when Descartes shifted the epistemological basis from external authority to internal certainty by his <em>cogito ergo sum<\/em>\u00a0(1637).\r\n\r\nAs to its end, most scholars use the last years of the century, often choosing the French Revolution of 1789 or the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars\u00a0(1804\u201315) to date the end of the Enlightenment.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h1>National Varieties<\/h1>\r\nThe Enlightenment took hold in most European countries, often with a specific local emphasis. For example, in France it became associated with anti-government and anti-Church radicalism, while in Germany it reached deep into the middle classes and took a spiritualistic and nationalistic tone without threatening governments or established churches.\u00a0Government responses varied widely. In France, the government was hostile and Enlightenment thinkers fought against its censorship, sometimes being imprisoned or hounded into exile. The British government largely ignored the Enlightenment's leaders in England and Scotland. The Scottish Enlightenment, with its mostly liberal Calvinist and Newtonian focus, played a major role in the further development of the transatlantic Enlightenment. In Italy, the significant reduction in the Church's power led to a period of great thought and invention, including scientific discoveries. In Russia, the government began to actively encourage the proliferation of arts and sciences in the mid-18th century. This era produced the first Russian university, library, theater, public museum, and independent press. Several Americans, especially Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, played a major role in bringing Enlightenment ideas to the New World and in influencing British and French thinkers. The cultural exchange during the Age of Enlightenment ran in both directions across the Atlantic. In their development of the ideas of natural freedom, Europeans and American thinkers drew from American Indian cultural practices and beliefs.\r\n<div class=\"atom__components__figure\">\r\n<div class=\"atom__components__figure__cont\">\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"340\"]<img class=\"atom__components__figure__image\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1599\/2017\/07\/18194132\/media_34125_medium.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"340\" height=\"555\" \/> First page of the Encyclopedie\u00a0published between 1751 and 1766.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"atom__components__document\">\r\n\r\nThe prime example of reference works that systematized scientific knowledge in the Age of Enlightenment were universal encyclopedias\u00a0rather than technical dictionaries. It was the goal of universal encyclopedias to record all human knowledge in a comprehensive reference work.\u00a0The most well-known of these works is Denis Diderot\u00a0and Jean le Rond d'Alembert's <em>Encyclop\u00e9die, ou dictionnaire raisonn\u00e9 des sciences, des arts et des m\u00e9tiers<\/em>. The work, which began publication in 1751, was composed of thirty-five volumes and over 71,000 separate entries. A great number of the entries were dedicated to describing the sciences and crafts in detail, and provided intellectuals across Europe with a high-quality survey of human knowledge.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"image_34125_text_equivalent\" class=\"atom__components__figure__text_equivalent\"><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h1>Major Enlightenment Ideas<\/h1>\r\nIn the mid-18th century, Europe witnessed\u00a0an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity that challenged traditional doctrines and dogmas. The philosophic movement was led by Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who argued for a society based upon reason rather than faith and Catholic doctrine, for a new civil order based on natural law, and for science based on experiments and observation. The political philosopher Montesquieu introduced the idea of a separation of powers in a government, a concept which was enthusiastically adopted by the authors of the United States Constitution.\r\n\r\nThere were two distinct lines of Enlightenment thought. The radical enlightenment, inspired by the philosophy of Spinoza, advocated democracy, individual liberty, freedom of expression, and eradication of religious authority. A second, more moderate variety, supported by Ren\u00e9 Descartes, John Locke, Christian Wolff, Isaac Newton and others, sought accommodation between reform and the traditional systems of power and faith.\r\n\r\nScience came to play a leading role in Enlightenment discourse and thought. Many Enlightenment writers and thinkers had backgrounds in the sciences and associated scientific advancement with the overthrow of religion and traditional authority in favor of the development of free speech and thought. Broadly speaking, Enlightenment science greatly valued empiricism and rational thought and was embedded with the Enlightenment ideal of advancement and progress. However, as with most Enlightenment views, the benefits of science were not seen universally.\r\n\r\nThe Enlightenment has also long been hailed as the foundation of modern Western political and intellectual culture. It brought political modernization to the West in terms of focusing on democratic values and institutions and the creation of modern, liberal democracies. The fundamentals of European liberal thought, including the right of the individual, the natural equality of all men, the separation of powers, the artificial character of the political order (which led to the later distinction between civil society and the state), the view that all legitimate political power must be \"representative\" and based on the consent of the people, and liberal interpretation of law that leaves people free to do whatever is not explicitly forbidden, were all developed by Enlightenment thinkers.\r\n\r\nIn religion, Enlightenment-era commentary was a response to the preceding century of religious conflict in Europe. Enlightenment thinkers sought to curtail the political power of organized religion and thereby prevent another age of intolerant religious war. A number of novel ideas developed, including deism (belief in God the Creator, with no reference to the Bible or any other source) and atheism. The latter was much discussed but had few proponents. Many, like Voltaire, held that without belief in a God who punishes evil, the moral order of society was undermined.\r\n<div class=\"atom__components__figure\">\r\n<div class=\"atom__components__figure__cont\">\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"340\"]<img class=\"atom__components__figure__image\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1599\/2017\/07\/18194134\/media_34124_medium.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"340\" height=\"503\" \/> Front page of\u00a0The Gentleman's Magazine, founded by Edward Cave in London in January 1731.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"atom__components__document\">\r\n\r\nThe increased consumption of reading materials of all sorts was one of the key features of the \"social\" Enlightenment. The Industrial Revolution allowed consumer goods to be produced in greater quantities at lower prices, encouraging the spread of books, pamphlets, newspapers, and journals. Cave's innovation was to create a monthly digest of news and commentary on any topic the educated public might be interested in, from commodity prices to Latin poetry.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"image_34124_text_equivalent\" class=\"atom__components__figure__text_equivalent\"><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h1>Impact<\/h1>\r\nThe ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789 and emphasized the rights of common men as opposed to the exclusive rights of the elites. As such, they laid the foundation for modern, rational, democratic societies. However, historians of race, gender, and class note that Enlightenment ideals were not originally envisioned as universal in the today's sense of the word. Although they did eventually inspire the struggles for rights of people of color, women, or the working masses, most Enlightenment thinkers did not advocate equality for all, regardless of race, gender, or class, but rather insisted that rights and freedoms were not hereditary (the heredity of power and rights was a common pre-Enlightenment assumption). This perspective directly attacked the traditionally exclusive position of the European aristocracy but was still largely focused on expanding the rights of white males of a particular social standing.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h3>Attributions<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Enlightenment Ideals\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<div class=\"attribution\">\"Age of Enlightenment.\" <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Age_of_Enlightenment\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Age_of_Enlightenment<\/a>. <span class=\"attribution-name\">Wikipedia<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>.<\/div><\/li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<div class=\"attribution\">\"The Gentleman's Magazine.\" <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Gentleman%27s_Magazine\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Gentleman%27s_Magazine<\/a>. <span class=\"attribution-name\">Wikipedia<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>.<\/div><\/li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<div class=\"attribution\">\"Empiricism.\" <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Empiricism\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Empiricism<\/a>. <span class=\"attribution-name\">Wikipedia<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>.<\/div><\/li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<div class=\"attribution\">\"Scientific method.\" <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Scientific_method\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Scientific_method<\/a>. <span class=\"attribution-name\">Wikipedia<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>.<\/div><\/li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<div class=\"attribution\">\"Reductionism.\" <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reductionism\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reductionism<\/a>. <span class=\"attribution-name\">Wikipedia<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>.<\/div><\/li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<div class=\"attribution\">\"Cogito ergo sum.\" <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cogito_ergo_sum\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cogito_ergo_sum<\/a>. <span class=\"attribution-name\">Wikipedia<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>.<\/div><\/li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<div class=\"attribution\">\"800px-Gentleman's_Magazine_1731.JPG.\" <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Age_of_Enlightenment#\/media\/File:Gentleman%27s_Magazine_1731.JPG\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Age_of_Enlightenment#\/media\/File:Gentleman%27s_Magazine_1731.JPG<\/a>. <span class=\"attribution-name\">Wikipedia<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Public_domain\">Public domain<\/a>.<\/div><\/li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<div class=\"attribution\">\"Encyclopedie_de_D'Alembert_et_Diderot_-_Premiere_Page_-_ENC_1-NA5.jpg.\" <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Age_of_Enlightenment#\/media\/File:Encyclopedie_de_D%27Alembert_et_Diderot_-_Premiere_Page_-_ENC_1-NA5.jpg\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Age_of_Enlightenment#\/media\/File:Encyclopedie_de_D%27Alembert_et_Diderot_-_Premiere_Page_-_ENC_1-NA5.jpg<\/a>. <span class=\"attribution-name\">Wikipedia<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Public_domain\">Public domain<\/a>.<\/div><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n&nbsp;","rendered":"<h1 id=\"section_1111\">21.1: The Age of Enlightenment<\/h1>\n<h2 id=\"concept_1116\">21.1.1: Enlightenment Ideals<\/h2>\n<div class=\"brief\">\n<p>Centered on the idea that reason is the primary source of authority and legitimacy, the Enlightenment was a philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe in the 18th century.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Learning Objective<\/h3>\n<p>Identify the core ideas that drove the Age of Enlightenment<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\n<h3>Key Points<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The Age of Enlightenment was a philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe in the 18th century. Centered on the idea that reason is the primary source of authority and legitimacy, this movement advocated such ideals as liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state.<\/li>\n<li>There is little consensus on the precise beginning of the Age of Enlightenment, but the beginning of the 18th century (1701) or the middle of the 17th century (1650) are commonly identified as starting points. French historians usually place the period between 1715 and 1789.\u00a0Most scholars use the last years of the century, often choosing the French Revolution of 1789 or the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars\u00a0(1804\u201315) to date the end of the Enlightenment.<\/li>\n<li>The Enlightenment took hold in most European countries, often with a specific local emphasis. The cultural exchange during the Age of Enlightenment ran between particular European countries and also in both directions across the Atlantic.<\/li>\n<li>There were two distinct lines of Enlightenment thought. The radical Enlightenment advocated democracy, individual liberty, freedom of expression, and eradication of religious authority. A second, more moderate variety sought accommodation between reform and the traditional systems of power and faith.<\/li>\n<li>Science came to play a leading role in Enlightenment discourse and thought. The Enlightenment has long been hailed as the foundation of modern Western political and intellectual culture. It brought political modernization to the West. In religion, Enlightenment era commentary was a response to the preceding century of religious conflict in Europe.<\/li>\n<li>Historians of race, gender, and class note that Enlightenment ideals were not originally envisioned as universal in the today&#8217;s sense of the word. Although they did eventually inspire the struggles for rights of people of color, women, or the working masses, most Enlightenment thinkers did not advocate equality for all, regardless of race, gender, or class, but rather insisted that rights and freedoms were not hereditary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox examples\">\n<h3>Key Terms<\/h3>\n<dl class=\"key_terms\">\n<dt><strong>reductionism<\/strong><\/dt>\n<dd>Several related but distinct philosophical positions regarding the connections between theories, &#8220;reducing&#8221; one idea to another, more basic one. In the sciences, its methodologies attempt to explain entire systems in terms of their individual, constituent parts and interactions.<\/dd>\n<dt><strong>scientific method<\/strong><\/dt>\n<dd>A\u00a0body of techniques\u00a0for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge that apply empirical\u00a0or measurable\u00a0evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.\u00a0It has characterized natural science\u00a0since the 17th century, consisting of systematic observation, measurement, and experimentation, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.<\/dd>\n<dt><strong>cogito ergo sum<\/strong><\/dt>\n<dd>A Latin philosophical proposition by Ren\u00e9 Descartes usually translated into English as &#8220;I think, therefore I am.&#8221; The phrase originally appeared in his <em>Discourse on the Method. <\/em>This proposition became a fundamental element of Western philosophy, as it purported to form a secure foundation for knowledge in the face of radical doubt. While other knowledge could be a figment of imagination, deception, or mistake, Descartes asserted that the very act of doubting one&#8217;s own existence served\u2014at minimum\u2014as proof of the reality of one&#8217;s own mind.<\/dd>\n<dt><strong>empiricism<\/strong><\/dt>\n<dd>The theory that knowledge comes primarily from sensory experience. It emphasizes evidence, especially data gathered through experimentation and use of the scientific method.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>The Age of Enlightenment<\/h3>\n<p>The Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Enlightenment, was a philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe in the 18th century. Centered on the idea that reason is the primary source of authority and legitimacy, this movement advocated such ideals as liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. The Enlightenment was marked by an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy. The core ideas advocated by modern democracies, including the civil society, human and civil rights, and separation of powers, are the product of the Enlightenment. Furthermore, the sciences and academic disciplines (including social sciences and the humanities) as we know them today, based on empirical methods, are also rooted in the Age of Enlightenment. All these developments, which followed and partly overlapped with the European exploration and colonization of the Americas and the intensification of the European presence in Asia and Africa, make the Enlightenment a starting point of what some historians define as the European Moment in World History: the long period of often tragic European domination over the rest of the world.<\/p>\n<p>There is little consensus on the precise beginning of the Age of Enlightenment, with the beginning of the 18th century (1701) or the middle of the 17th century (1650) often considered starting points. French historians usually place the period between 1715 and 1789, from the beginning of the reign of Louis XV\u00a0until the French Revolution. In the mid-17th century, the Enlightenment traces its origins to Descartes&#8217; <em>Discourse on Method<\/em>, published in 1637. In France, many cite the publication of Isaac Newton&#8217;s <em>Principia Mathematica<\/em>\u00a0in 1687.\u00a0Some historians and philosophers have argued that the beginning of the Enlightenment is when Descartes shifted the epistemological basis from external authority to internal certainty by his <em>cogito ergo sum<\/em>\u00a0(1637).<\/p>\n<p>As to its end, most scholars use the last years of the century, often choosing the French Revolution of 1789 or the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars\u00a0(1804\u201315) to date the end of the Enlightenment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1>National Varieties<\/h1>\n<p>The Enlightenment took hold in most European countries, often with a specific local emphasis. For example, in France it became associated with anti-government and anti-Church radicalism, while in Germany it reached deep into the middle classes and took a spiritualistic and nationalistic tone without threatening governments or established churches.\u00a0Government responses varied widely. In France, the government was hostile and Enlightenment thinkers fought against its censorship, sometimes being imprisoned or hounded into exile. The British government largely ignored the Enlightenment&#8217;s leaders in England and Scotland. The Scottish Enlightenment, with its mostly liberal Calvinist and Newtonian focus, played a major role in the further development of the transatlantic Enlightenment. In Italy, the significant reduction in the Church&#8217;s power led to a period of great thought and invention, including scientific discoveries. In Russia, the government began to actively encourage the proliferation of arts and sciences in the mid-18th century. This era produced the first Russian university, library, theater, public museum, and independent press. Several Americans, especially Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, played a major role in bringing Enlightenment ideas to the New World and in influencing British and French thinkers. The cultural exchange during the Age of Enlightenment ran in both directions across the Atlantic. In their development of the ideas of natural freedom, Europeans and American thinkers drew from American Indian cultural practices and beliefs.<\/p>\n<div class=\"atom__components__figure\">\n<div class=\"atom__components__figure__cont\">\n<div style=\"width: 350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"atom__components__figure__image\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1599\/2017\/07\/18194132\/media_34125_medium.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"340\" height=\"555\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">First page of the Encyclopedie\u00a0published between 1751 and 1766.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"atom__components__document\">\n<p>The prime example of reference works that systematized scientific knowledge in the Age of Enlightenment were universal encyclopedias\u00a0rather than technical dictionaries. It was the goal of universal encyclopedias to record all human knowledge in a comprehensive reference work.\u00a0The most well-known of these works is Denis Diderot\u00a0and Jean le Rond d&#8217;Alembert&#8217;s <em>Encyclop\u00e9die, ou dictionnaire raisonn\u00e9 des sciences, des arts et des m\u00e9tiers<\/em>. The work, which began publication in 1751, was composed of thirty-five volumes and over 71,000 separate entries. A great number of the entries were dedicated to describing the sciences and crafts in detail, and provided intellectuals across Europe with a high-quality survey of human knowledge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"image_34125_text_equivalent\" class=\"atom__components__figure__text_equivalent\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h1>Major Enlightenment Ideas<\/h1>\n<p>In the mid-18th century, Europe witnessed\u00a0an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity that challenged traditional doctrines and dogmas. The philosophic movement was led by Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who argued for a society based upon reason rather than faith and Catholic doctrine, for a new civil order based on natural law, and for science based on experiments and observation. The political philosopher Montesquieu introduced the idea of a separation of powers in a government, a concept which was enthusiastically adopted by the authors of the United States Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>There were two distinct lines of Enlightenment thought. The radical enlightenment, inspired by the philosophy of Spinoza, advocated democracy, individual liberty, freedom of expression, and eradication of religious authority. A second, more moderate variety, supported by Ren\u00e9 Descartes, John Locke, Christian Wolff, Isaac Newton and others, sought accommodation between reform and the traditional systems of power and faith.<\/p>\n<p>Science came to play a leading role in Enlightenment discourse and thought. Many Enlightenment writers and thinkers had backgrounds in the sciences and associated scientific advancement with the overthrow of religion and traditional authority in favor of the development of free speech and thought. Broadly speaking, Enlightenment science greatly valued empiricism and rational thought and was embedded with the Enlightenment ideal of advancement and progress. However, as with most Enlightenment views, the benefits of science were not seen universally.<\/p>\n<p>The Enlightenment has also long been hailed as the foundation of modern Western political and intellectual culture. It brought political modernization to the West in terms of focusing on democratic values and institutions and the creation of modern, liberal democracies. The fundamentals of European liberal thought, including the right of the individual, the natural equality of all men, the separation of powers, the artificial character of the political order (which led to the later distinction between civil society and the state), the view that all legitimate political power must be &#8220;representative&#8221; and based on the consent of the people, and liberal interpretation of law that leaves people free to do whatever is not explicitly forbidden, were all developed by Enlightenment thinkers.<\/p>\n<p>In religion, Enlightenment-era commentary was a response to the preceding century of religious conflict in Europe. Enlightenment thinkers sought to curtail the political power of organized religion and thereby prevent another age of intolerant religious war. A number of novel ideas developed, including deism (belief in God the Creator, with no reference to the Bible or any other source) and atheism. The latter was much discussed but had few proponents. Many, like Voltaire, held that without belief in a God who punishes evil, the moral order of society was undermined.<\/p>\n<div class=\"atom__components__figure\">\n<div class=\"atom__components__figure__cont\">\n<div style=\"width: 350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"atom__components__figure__image\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1599\/2017\/07\/18194134\/media_34124_medium.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"340\" height=\"503\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Front page of\u00a0The Gentleman&#8217;s Magazine, founded by Edward Cave in London in January 1731.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"atom__components__document\">\n<p>The increased consumption of reading materials of all sorts was one of the key features of the &#8220;social&#8221; Enlightenment. The Industrial Revolution allowed consumer goods to be produced in greater quantities at lower prices, encouraging the spread of books, pamphlets, newspapers, and journals. Cave&#8217;s innovation was to create a monthly digest of news and commentary on any topic the educated public might be interested in, from commodity prices to Latin poetry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"image_34124_text_equivalent\" class=\"atom__components__figure__text_equivalent\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h1>Impact<\/h1>\n<p>The ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789 and emphasized the rights of common men as opposed to the exclusive rights of the elites. As such, they laid the foundation for modern, rational, democratic societies. However, historians of race, gender, and class note that Enlightenment ideals were not originally envisioned as universal in the today&#8217;s sense of the word. Although they did eventually inspire the struggles for rights of people of color, women, or the working masses, most Enlightenment thinkers did not advocate equality for all, regardless of race, gender, or class, but rather insisted that rights and freedoms were not hereditary (the heredity of power and rights was a common pre-Enlightenment assumption). This perspective directly attacked the traditionally exclusive position of the European aristocracy but was still largely focused on expanding the rights of white males of a particular social standing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Attributions<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n<ul>\n<li>Enlightenment Ideals\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div class=\"attribution\">&#8220;Age of Enlightenment.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Age_of_Enlightenment\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Age_of_Enlightenment<\/a>. <span class=\"attribution-name\">Wikipedia<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"attribution\">&#8220;The Gentleman&#8217;s Magazine.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Gentleman%27s_Magazine\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Gentleman%27s_Magazine<\/a>. <span class=\"attribution-name\">Wikipedia<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"attribution\">&#8220;Empiricism.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Empiricism\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Empiricism<\/a>. <span class=\"attribution-name\">Wikipedia<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"attribution\">&#8220;Scientific method.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Scientific_method\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Scientific_method<\/a>. <span class=\"attribution-name\">Wikipedia<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"attribution\">&#8220;Reductionism.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reductionism\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reductionism<\/a>. <span class=\"attribution-name\">Wikipedia<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"attribution\">&#8220;Cogito ergo sum.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cogito_ergo_sum\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cogito_ergo_sum<\/a>. <span class=\"attribution-name\">Wikipedia<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"attribution\">&#8220;800px-Gentleman&#8217;s_Magazine_1731.JPG.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Age_of_Enlightenment#\/media\/File:Gentleman%27s_Magazine_1731.JPG\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Age_of_Enlightenment#\/media\/File:Gentleman%27s_Magazine_1731.JPG<\/a>. <span class=\"attribution-name\">Wikipedia<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Public_domain\">Public domain<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"attribution\">&#8220;Encyclopedie_de_D&#8217;Alembert_et_Diderot_-_Premiere_Page_-_ENC_1-NA5.jpg.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Age_of_Enlightenment#\/media\/File:Encyclopedie_de_D%27Alembert_et_Diderot_-_Premiere_Page_-_ENC_1-NA5.jpg\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Age_of_Enlightenment#\/media\/File:Encyclopedie_de_D%27Alembert_et_Diderot_-_Premiere_Page_-_ENC_1-NA5.jpg<\/a>. <span class=\"attribution-name\">Wikipedia<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Public_domain\">Public domain<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-2508\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Boundless World History. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Boundless. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/boundless-worldhistory\/\">https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/boundless-worldhistory\/<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":311,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Boundless World History\",\"author\":\"Boundless\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/boundless-worldhistory\/\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-2508","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":3211,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-worldhistory\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-worldhistory\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-worldhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-worldhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/311"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-worldhistory\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5181,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-worldhistory\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2508\/revisions\/5181"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-worldhistory\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3211"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-worldhistory\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2508\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-worldhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-worldhistory\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=2508"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-worldhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=2508"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-worldhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=2508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}