The Enlightenment

Math + telescope=The Enlightenment. Okay, it's not that simple, but the mathematic and astronomical discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton established the primacy of reason over blind faith. Above all, the Scientific Revolution set the stage for a new way of looking at the world, and its philosophical underpinning of rationality led to what historians now call The Enlightenment, an intellectual, social, and literary movement that began in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Writers such as John Locke (our minds begin tabula rasa -- with a blank slate), Voltaire, Jeremy Bentham ("the greatest good for the greatest number"), Jean-Jacques Rousseau ("the Noble Savage" -- we'll see him again when we look at Romanticism), Montesquieu, and our own Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine all challenged the accepted hierachies and mindset of the current world.

Below you'll find a list of the primary tenets of the Enlightenment -- other overviews can be found in the Encyclopedia Britannica and Wickipedia. At the end of this page are more detailed explanations of each of these tenets.

• Reason
• Optimism
• Science
• Philosophical
• Questioning religion
• Put emotion aside
• Group
• Irony/satire/wit

One note on the term "The Enlightenment" -- the light did not burn brightly for all. Many (most?) women, minorities, and poor people did not directly benefit from these supposedly enlightened ideals. Thus some historians and writers frown on the term. But it did start the kind of egalitarian thinking that moved cultures toward more "enlightened" views of women, minorities, and the poor -- and a host of other ideals -- and thus does have its usefullness.

• Reason: learn through experience. We should use our intellect and experimentation instead of relying on the teachings of others.
• Optimism: if there is a problem, instead of resigning ourselves and saying "God wished it so it is so," we can use reason to solve it.
• Science: the bedrock of the movement. Reason applied to the world.
• Philosophical: maintain a speculative, questioning outlook.
• Questioning religion: the rational ethos of the Enlightenment aroused a more skeptical view of religion. Many educated people (including several of our founding fathers) moved away from a belief in a vengeful or benevolent God to a belief in an indifferent one. This "religion," known as deism, is famously described by the analogy of a clock: a god wound up our world like a clock, set it down, and wandered away. This mindset posits that there was no "grand design:" there was a beginning, and that was it; the world was random and chaotic and the cruelty inflicted upon humans by other humans (or by nature) is just that: cruelty. It has not spiritural meaning or purpose and thus should be mitigated when possible.

  This view undercut the authority of the church by shifting the emphasis from God to man. Additionally, the emphasis on rationality weakened the powers of organized religion and meant that the Catholic church, which had held sway over much of Europe for centuries, was now questioned. And thus the supremacy of the pope -- and of the Jesuits, an order both respected for their intellectual pursuits and suspected as being spies for the Vatican -- were weakened.

• Put emotion aside: because emotion can sway logic, rely on reason and thinking over the emotions.
• Group: As Jeremy Bentham (supposedly) said, we should strive for "the greatest good for the greatest number." Instead of a Machevillian self-interest, we have an obligation to all.
• Irony/satire/wit: Each of these rhetorical styles involves involves reason and were therefore valued.

 © 2007 David Bordelon