Kristine White, age 14, of Middletown, Ohio, for her question:
WHAT WAS THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT?
Age of Enlightenment is a term used to describe trends in thought and letters in Europe and the American colonies during the 18th century prior to the French Revolution. The phrase was frequently used by writers of the period itself, convinced that they were emerging from centuries of darkness and ignorance into a new age enlightened by reason, science and a respect for humanity.
The precursors of the Enlightenment can be traced to the 17th century and earlier. They included the philosophical rationalists Rene Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, the political philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke and various skeptical thinkers in France.
The self confidence engendered by new discoveries in science and the spirit of cultural relativism encouraged by the exploration of the non European world were equally important.
Of the basic assumptions and beliefs common the philosophers and intellectuals of this period, perhaps the most important was an abiding faith in the power of human reason.
The age was enormously impressed by Isaac Newton's discovery of universal gravitation. If humanity could so unlock the laws of the universe, God's own laws, why could not it also discover the laws underlying all of nature and society?
People came to assume that through a judicious use of reason, an unending progress would be possible in knowledge, in technical achievement and even. in moral values.
According to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, the motto of the age should be: "Dare to know." A desire arose to reexamine and question all received ideas and values, to explore new ideas in many different directions hence the inconsistencies and contradictions that often appear in the writings of 18th century thinkers.
The single most influential and representative of the French writers was Voltaire. But far more original were the works of Jean Jacques Rousseau.
During the first half of the 18th century, the leaders of the Enlightenment waged an uphill struggle against considerable odds. Most were hampered by government censorship and attacks by the church.
The later decades of the century, however, marked a triumph of the movement in Europe and America in many respects. By the 1770s, second generation philosophers were receiving government pensions and taking control of established intellectual academies.
The enormous increase in the publication of newspapers and books during this period ensured a wide diffusion of the philosophers' ideas.
The Age of Enlightenment is usually said to have ended with the French Revolution of 1789. And some see the social and political ferment of this period as being responsible for the Revolution.
The Enlightenment left a lasting heritage for the 19th and 20th centuries. It marked a key stage in the growth of modern secularism. It served as the model for political and economic liberalism and for humanitarian reform throughout the 19th century Western world.