The Enlightenment
How were these values spread?
- One of the most important works made during the Enlightenment was the Encyclopaedia. The "Encyclopaedia" would incorporate all of the world's knowledge and spread it to other countries all over the world. - Thanks to increased literacy and the falling cost of books, the means of spreading results of science experiments improved, as did the willingness of thinkers and scientists to discuss them and adopt them - Literary salons and coffeehouses emerged as new places to socialize and discuss ideas. Education for children became more widespread, and more universities were founded. Literacy rates increased dramatically, and public libraries and museums were introduced.
What were its most important values?
- Characteristics of the Enlightenment include the rise of concepts such as reason, liberty and the scientific method. - Enlightenment philosophy was skeptical of religion — especially the powerful Catholic Church — monarchies and hereditary aristocracy.
What were the shortcomings or blind spots in the enlightenment?
- Counter-Enlightenment in France argued that the Enlightenment blinded the people from observing norms and accepting social order. - People would blame the Enlightenment for the guillotine and the bloody excesses of the French Revolution, thus laying the groundwork for the criticism that the Enlightenment had sacrificed love, spirituality and tradition at the altar of reason and absolute freedom. - The Age of Enlightenment and Reason gave way to moral relativism. - This was also the time of movements like that of the Convulsionists (a religious movement preaching celibacy and the Second Coming), of secret societies like the Rosicruceans and the Freemasons, and occult figures such as the Count Alessandro Cagliostro.
In his What is the Enlightenment, Immanuel Kant declared that contemporaries were not living in an enlightened age but "an age of enlightenment." What did he mean by this?
- He means that this age is one of intellectual and spiritual awakening/bettering or 'enlightening'. - "Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity." (Kant).
Who was included and excluded?
- Men were included, women were excluded. - The idea of enlightened reason excluded women because of what was seen by many as their innate feminine characteristics, which were viewed as inferior, weak and childlike.
What was the Enlightenment?
The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was a philosophical movement that took place primarily in Europe and, later, in North America, during the late 17th and early 18th century. Its participants thought they were illuminating human intellect and culture after the "dark" Middle Ages.
