64 Facts About Enlightenment philosophy

Age of Enlightenment philosophy, or simply the Enlightenment philosophy, was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries with global influences and effects.

The Enlightenment philosophy included a range of ideas centered on the value of human happiness, the pursuit of knowledge obtained by means of reason and the evidence of the senses, and ideals such as liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, and constitutional government.

Enlightenment philosophy was preceded by the Scientific Revolution and the work of Francis Bacon, among others.

The ideas of the Enlightenment philosophy undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Catholic Church and paved the way for the political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Central doctrines of the Enlightenment philosophy were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Church.

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The Enlightenment philosophy was marked by an increasing awareness of the relationship between the mind and the everday media of the world, and by an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism, along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy—an attitude captured by Immanuel Kant's essay Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment philosophy, where the phrase Sapere aude can be found.

Age of Enlightenment philosophy was preceded by and closely associated with the Scientific Revolution.

Some major figures of the Enlightenment philosophy included Cesare Beccaria, Denis Diderot, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, John Locke, Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Hugo Grotius, Baruch Spinoza, and Voltaire.

European rulers such as Catherine II of Russia, Joseph II of Austria and Frederick II of Prussia tried to apply Enlightenment philosophy thought on religious and political tolerance, which became known as enlightened absolutism.

The ideas of the Enlightenment philosophy played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789.

Enlightenment philosophy's skepticism was refined by John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding and David Hume's writings in the 1740s.

Enlightenment philosophy's dualism was challenged by Spinoza's uncompromising assertion of the unity of matter in his Tractatus and Ethics .

Francis Hutcheson, a moral philosopher and founding figure of the Scottish Enlightenment philosophy, described the utilitarian and consequentialist principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words, "the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers".

Enlightenment philosophy's argued for a society based on reason and that women as well as men should be treated as rational beings.

Enlightenment philosophy's is best known for her work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman .

Enlightenment philosophy was based in the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg, then in Berlin at the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres, and finally back in St Petersburg at the Imperial Academy .

The study of science, under the heading of natural Enlightenment philosophy, was divided into physics and a conglomerate grouping of chemistry and natural history, which included anatomy, biology, geology, mineralogy and zoology.

Science during the Enlightenment philosophy was dominated by scientific societies and academies, which had largely replaced universities as centres of scientific research and development.

Hume and other Scottish Enlightenment philosophy thinkers developed a "science of man", which was expressed historically in works by authors including James Burnett, Adam Ferguson, John Millar and William Robertson, all of whom merged a scientific study of how humans behaved in ancient and primitive cultures with a strong awareness of the determining forces of modernity.

Cesare Beccaria, a jurist, criminologist, philosopher and politician and one of the great Enlightenment philosophy writers, became famous for his masterpiece Of Crimes and Punishments, later translated into 22 languages, which condemned torture and the death penalty and was a founding work in the field of penology and the classical school of criminology by promoting criminal justice.

Enlightenment philosophy has long been hailed as the foundation of modern Western political and intellectual culture.

The Enlightenment philosophy brought political modernization to the West, in terms of introducing democratic values and institutions and the creation of modern, liberal democracies.

John Locke, one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers, based his governance philosophy in social contract theory, a subject that permeated Enlightenment political thought.

Leaders of the Enlightenment philosophy were not especially democratic, as they more often look to absolute monarchs as the key to imposing reforms designed by the intellectuals.

Frederick the Great, the king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, saw himself as a leader of the Enlightenment philosophy and patronized philosophers and scientists at his court in Berlin.

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Enlightenment philosophy has been frequently linked to the American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789—both had some intellectual influence from Thomas Jefferson in real time.

Enlightenment philosophy era religious commentary was a response to the preceding century of religious conflict in Europe, especially the Thirty Years' War.

Theologians of the Enlightenment philosophy wanted to reform their faith to its generally non-confrontational roots and to limit the capacity for religious controversy to spill over into politics and warfare while still maintaining a true faith in God.

Enlightenment philosophy determined the essence of Christianity to be a belief in Christ the redeemer and recommended avoiding more detailed debate.

Enlightenment philosophy scholars sought to curtail the political power of organized religion and thereby prevent another age of intolerant religious war.

Enlightenment philosophy would be a god to himself, and the satisfaction of his own will the sole measure and end of all his actions.

Enlightenment philosophy previously had supported successful efforts to disestablish the Church of England in Virginia and authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

Enlightenment philosophy took hold in most European countries and influenced nations globally, often with a specific local emphasis.

Some surveys of the entire Enlightenment philosophy include England and others ignore it, although they do include coverage of such major intellectuals as Joseph Addison, Edward Gibbon, John Locke, Isaac Newton, Alexander Pope, Joshua Reynolds and Jonathan Swift.

Porter says the reason was that Enlightenment philosophy had come early to England and had succeeded so that the culture had accepted political liberalism, philosophical empiricism, and religious toleration of the sort that intellectuals on the continent had to fight for against powerful odds.

The focus of the Scottish Enlightenment philosophy ranged from intellectual and economic matters to the specifically scientific as in the work of William Cullen, physician and chemist; James Anderson, an agronomist; Joseph Black, physicist and chemist; and James Hutton, the first modern geologist.

In each case, Enlightenment philosophy values became accepted and led to significant political and administrative reforms that laid the groundwork for the creation of modern states.

German Enlightenment philosophy won the support of princes, aristocrats and the middle classes and it permanently reshaped the culture.

Men who doubted the value of Enlightenment philosophy favoured the measure, but so too did many supporters.

Enlightenment philosophy's textbook Della diceosina, o sia della Filosofia del Giusto e dell'Onesto was a controversial attempt to mediate between the history of moral philosophy on the one hand and the specific problems encountered by 18th-century commercial society on the other.

Enlightenment philosophy's governance was as enlightened as ruthless, see for example the Tavora affair.

Enlightenment philosophy's works remain today as one of the best pieces of Portuguese literature.

The physician Antonio Nunes Ribeiro Sanches was an important Enlightenment philosophy figure, contributing to the Encyclopedie and being part of the Russian court.

Ideas of the Enlightenment philosophy influenced various economists and anti-colonial intellectuals throughout the Portuguese Empire, such as Jose de Azeredo Coutinho, Jose da Silva Lisboa, Claudio Manoel da Costa, and Tomas Antonio Gonzaga.

Enlightenment philosophy's used her own interpretation of Enlightenment ideals, assisted by notable international experts such as Voltaire and in residence world class scientists such as Leonhard Euler and Peter Simon Pallas.

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The national Enlightenment philosophy differed from its Western European counterpart in that it promoted further modernization of all aspects of Russian life and was concerned with attacking the institution of serfdom in Russia.

The Russian Enlightenment philosophy centered on the individual instead of societal enlightenment and encouraged the living of an enlightened life.

Enlightenment philosophy ideas emerged late in Poland, as the Polish middle class was weaker and szlachta culture together with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth political system were in deep crisis.

Enlightenment philosophy began to influence the Ottoman Empire in the 1830s and continued into the late nineteenth century.

Enlightenment philosophy historiography began in the period itself, from what Enlightenment philosophy figures said about their work.

Russell said that the Enlightenment philosophy was ultimately born out of the Protestant reaction against the Catholic Counter-Reformation and that philosophical views such as affinity for democracy against monarchy originated among 16th-century Protestants to justify their desire to break away from the Catholic Church.

Enlightenment philosophy instead focuses on the history of ideas in the period from 1650 to the end of the 18th century and claims that it was the ideas themselves that caused the change that eventually led to the revolutions of the latter half of the 18th century and the early 19th century.

Enlightenment philosophy, understood in the widest sense as the advance of thought, has always aimed at liberating human beings from fear and installing them as masters.

One of the primary elements of the culture of the Enlightenment philosophy was the rise of the public sphere, a "realm of communication marked by new arenas of debate, more open and accessible forms of urban public space and sociability, and an explosion of print culture", in the late 17th century and 18th century.

Enlightenment philosophy gained considerable fame there with performances of his operas and oratorios.

For example, Rose Rosengard Subotnik's Deconstructive Variations compares Mozart's Die Zauberflote using the Enlightenment philosophy and Romantic perspectives and concludes that the work is "an ideal musical representation of the Enlightenment philosophy".

The Cyclopaedia emphasized Newtonian theories, Lockean Enlightenment philosophy and contained thorough examinations of technologies, such as engraving, brewing and dyeing.

However, the prime example of reference works that systematized scientific knowledge in the Age of Enlightenment philosophy were universal encyclopedias rather than technical dictionaries.

One of the most important developments that the Enlightenment philosophy era brought to the discipline of science was its popularization.

Sir Isaac Newton's celebrated Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica was published in Latin and remained inaccessible to readers without education in the classics until Enlightenment philosophy writers began to translate and analyze the text in the vernacular.

The Cafe Procope in particular became a center of Enlightenment philosophy, welcoming such celebrities as Voltaire and Rousseau.

Enlightenment philosophy'storians have long debated the extent to which the secret network of Freemasonry was a main factor in the Enlightenment.

The leaders of the Enlightenment philosophy included Freemasons such as Diderot, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Lessing, Pope, Horace Walpole, Sir Robert Walpole, Mozart, Goethe, Frederick the Great, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington.

Art produced during the Enlightenment philosophy focused on a search for morality that was absent from the art in previous eras.