The Enlightenment

Newton’s work seemed to prove that order and mathematically demonstrable laws were at work in the physical universe. Perhaps a similar order and rationality could be imposed on the social and political institutions. This ideal fired the imagination of the leaders of the Enlightenment, who gradually became known as philosophes, simply French for “philosophers.” But regardless of national origin, the name took hold for thinkers as diverse as the French writer Voltaire, the American scientist and

statesman Benjamin Franklin, and the G

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The French philosophes were the most outspoken and most radical of the century, and to this day when thinking of the Enlightenment, France is the first to come to mind. Now and then, they wrote anonymously, but always they sought to live by their pens. They expressed confidence in science and reason, called for humanitarian treatment of slaves and criminals, and played a cat-and-mouse game with censors. Philosophes were found most commonly in the major European cities, where they clubbed and socialized in literary and philosophical societies. The philosophes helped shaped, if not define, the modern outlook. They had wearied of iniquitous taxes designed by bureaucrats who never had to pay them, and indeed of everything that could not be explained rationally. The philosophes’ readers, too, were fed up with all vestiges of medieval culture.

The Enlightenment established a vision of humanity so independent of Christianity and so focused on the needs and abuses of the society of the time that no established institution, once grown corrupt and ineffectual, could long withstand its penetrating critique. Late in the eighteenth century, Kant gave the most succinct definition of the Enlightenment: bringing “light into the dark corners of mind,” dispelling ignorance, prejudice, and superstition. Dedicated to freedom of thought and person, the combined these liberal values with secular orientation and a brief in future progress. Their writings spread far and wide because they adopted a new style for philosophical discussion: clear, direct, witty, satirical, even naughty and audacious. Their success owed much to the growing literacy of urban men and women, a new prosperity that made books affordable, and, not least, the existence of an audience that liked what they had to say. Whether radical or moderate, the philosophes were united by certain key ideas. They were also willing to entertain, although not necessarily accept, new heresies--such as atheism or the belief that the earth had gradually evolved or the view that the Bible was a series of wise stories but not the literal word of God. They believed in the new science, were critical of clergy and all rigid dogma but tolerant of people’s right to worship freely, and believed deeply in freedom of the press.

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Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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