what is enlightenment essays

what is enlightenment essays What is Enlightenment? In the eighteenth century in France Britain and Germany a general intellectual move towards greater reliance on the human sciences and their relevance to the boundaries of existing knowledge began. This movement was referred to as "The Enlightenment". As the name suggests the movement set out to shed a greater on humanity, human nature and the nature of existence. A great desire was shared to determine the extent of our knowledge of the world and for ways to gain a greater This movement relied on a mass rejection of tradition and already called for the removal of all established conceptions and prejudices commonly held. The Catholic Church, and indeed all religions came under heavy scrutiny and rejection due to their all pervasive grip on all matters educational, scientific and philosophical. Religious morals and guidelines also came to be Science, logic and rationalism became the principal tools of philosophy in this era as was evidenced by the new methods employed in argument, Tradition in all its forms, be it religious or scientific was eschewed in favour of a clean slate from which to begin re-assessing what we can know. Although Descartes was the first Philosopher to employ reason as a tool and Francis Bacon greatly influenced Enlightenment thought it is John Locke, an English Protestant philosopher based in Amsterdam who is perceived to be the father figure of this movement. In France a legion of intellectuals known as the philosophes became a phenomena, and globally thinkers such as Hume and Kant helped define the enlightenment movement. In order to understand what the Enlightenment is one must consider the historical period it influenced and took its influence from. The enlightenment took place against a historical background of momentous cultural change. The reformation of the fifteenth century and ...