10.1: The Enlightenment Defined

The Enlightenment was a philosophical movement that lasted about one hundred years, roughly 1688 - 1789. It was centrally concerned with applying rational thought to almost every aspect of human existence, such as science, philosophy, morality, and society. At the same, there was an emergence of new forms of media and ways in which people exchanged information, along with new “sensibilities” regarding what was proper and desirable in social conduct and politics.

Many modern ideas come from this movement. Enlightenment thinkers argued that all citizens should be equal before the law. They claimed that the best forms of government were those with rational laws oriented to serve the public interest. In a major break from the past, they increasingly claimed that there was a real, physical universe that could be understood using the methods of science, in contrast to the false, made-up universe of “magic” suitable only for myths and storytelling. In short, Enlightenment thinkers proposed ideas that were novel at the time, but were eventually accepted by almost everyone in Europe (and many other places, including the inhabitants of the colonies of the Americas).

The Enlightenment introduced themes of thought that undermined traditional religious beliefs. including the rejection of “superstitions” or things that simply could not happen according to science. They argued that the “real” natural universe was governed by natural laws, all watched over by a benevolent but completely remote “supreme being” - reminiscent of Deism that had emerged from the Scientific Revolution. Many thinkers decried church practices, and what they perceived as the ignorance and injustice behind church (especially Catholic) laws.

The Enlightenment was also against “tyranny,” which meant the arbitrary rule of a monarch indifferent to the welfare of his or her subjects. They did not openly reject monarchy as a form of government. Indeed, some thinkers befriended powerful kings and queens. But, they roundly condemned cruelty and selfishness among individual monarchs. The perfect state was one with an “enlightened” monarch at its head, presiding over a set of reasonable laws. Great Britain's constitutional monarchy was the best extant model of enlightened rule.

Behind both the scientific worldview and the rejection of tyranny was a focus on the human mind’s capacity for reason. (Reason is the mental faculty that takes sensory data and orders it into thoughts and ideas.) To these thinkers, reason is universal and inherent to humans. If society could strip away the pernicious patterns of tradition, superstition, and ignorance, humankind would arrive naturally at a harmonious society. Thus, almost all of the major thinkers of the Enlightenment tried to get to the bottom of just that task: what is standing in the way of reason, and how can humanity become more reasonable?

Europe During the Enlightenment