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Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment (or simply the Enlightenment or Age of Reason) is the era from the 1650s or earlier to around the 1780s in which cultural and intellectual forces in Western Europe emphasized reason, analysis and individualism rather than traditional lines of authority. It was promoted by "philosophes" and local thinkers in urban coffeehouses, salons and masonic lodges. It challenged the authority of institutions that were deeply rooted in society, such as the Catholic Church; there was much talk of ways to reform society with toleration, science and skepticism.

Philosophers including Francis Bacon (1562-1626), René Descartes (1596-1650), John Locke (1632–1704), Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), Pierre Bayle (1647–1706), Voltaire (1694–1778), Francis Hutcheson, (1694–1746), David Hume (1711–1776), Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794), Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) and Isaac Newton (1643–1727)[1] influenced society by publishing widely read works. Upon learning about enlightened views, some rulers met with intellectuals and tried to apply their reforms, such as allowing for toleration, or accepting multiple religions, in what became known as enlightened absolutism. Coinciding with the Age of Enlightenment was the Scientific Revolution spearheaded by England's Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727).

New ideas and belief systems spread around the continent and were fostered by an increase in literacy due to a departure from solely religious texts. These transforming publications include Encyclopédie (1751–72) that was edited by Denis Diderot (1713–1784) and (until 1759) Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717–1783) Some 25,000 copies of the 35 volume encyclopedia were sold, half of them outside France. The Dictionnaire philosophique (Philosophical Dictionary, 1764) and Letters on the English (1733) written by Voltaire (1694-1778) were revolutionary texts that spread the ideals of the Enlightenment.

By the end of the 18th century, the Enlightenment was followed by the movement towards opposing theories known as Romanticism.


  • Use of the term 1
    • Time span 1.1
  • National variations 2
    • Enlightened absolutism 2.1
    • Britain 2.2
      • Scotland 2.2.1
      • England 2.2.2
      • Thirteen American Colonies 2.2.3
    • Dutch Republic 2.3
    • Italy 2.4
    • Poland 2.5
    • Prussia and the German States 2.6
    • Russia 2.7
    • Spain 2.8
    • Greece 2.9
  • Goals 3
  • Social and cultural interpretation 4
    • Exclusivity of the public sphere 4.1
    • Social and cultural implications in music 4.2
  • Dissemination of ideas 5
    • Schools and universities 5.1
    • Learned academies 5.2
    • The book industry 5.3
    • Natural history 5.4
    • Scientific and literary journals 5.5
    • The Republic of Letters 5.6
    • Grub Street 5.7
    • Coffee houses 5.8
    • Debating societies 5.9
    • Masonic lodges 5.10
      • Masons and the French and American revolutions 5.10.1
    • Salons 5.11
  • Historiography 6
    • Debates 6.1
    • Definition 6.2
    • Political thought 6.3
    • Religious debate 6.4
    • Intellectual history 6.5
    • Recent work 6.6
  • Important intellectuals 7
  • See also 8
  • References 9
  • Further reading 10
    • Reference and surveys 10.1
    • Specialty studies 10.2
    • Primary sources 10.3
  • External links 11

Use of the term

The term "Enlightenment" emerged in English in the later part of the 19th century,[2] with particular reference to French philosophy, as the equivalent of the French term 'Lumières' (used first by Dubos in 1733 and already well established by 1751). From Immanuel Kant's 1784 essay "Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?" ("Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?") the German term became 'Aufklärung' (aufklären = to illuminate; sich aufklären = to clear up).





Historian Jonathan Israel rejects the attempts of postmodern and Marxian historians to understand the revolutionary ideas of the period purely as by-products of social and economic transformations.[6] He 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.[7] Israel argues that until the 1650s Western civilization "was based on a largely shared core of faith, tradition and authority".[8]


According to Jonathan Israel, this period saw the shaping of two distinct lines of enlightenment thought:[10][11] Firstly the radical enlightenment, largely inspired by the one-substance philosophy of Spinoza, which in its political form adhered to: "democracy; racial and sexual equality; individual liberty of lifestyle; full freedom of thought, expression, and the press; eradication of religious authority from the legislative process and education; and full separation of church and state".[12]


Time span

There is little consensus on the precise beginning of the age of Enlightenment; the beginning of the 18th century (1701) or the middle of the 17th century (1650) are often used as an approximate starting point. If taken back to the mid-17th century, the Enlightenment would trace its origins to Descartes' Discourse on Method, published in 1637. In France at the time many cited the publication of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica in 1687.[14] Jonathan Israel argues, "after 1650, everything, no matter how fundamental or deeply rooted, was questioned in the light of philosophic reason".[15] Israel makes a case that, from 1650 to 1750, Spinoza, despite having died in 1677 and his magnum opus not even published until afterwards, was "the chief challenger of the fundamentals of revealed religion, received ideas, tradition, morality, and what was everywhere regarded, in absolutist and nonabsolutist states alike, as divinely constituted political authority."[16]



National variations




Enlightened absolutism





Historian Jonathan Israel argues that by 1750 Scotland's major cities had created an intellectual infrastructure of mutually supporting institutions, such as universities, reading societies, libraries, periodicals, museums and masonic lodges. The Scottish network was "predominantly liberal Calvinist, Newtonian, and 'design' oriented in character which played a major role in the further development of the transatlantic Enlightenment".[22] In France Voltaire said "we look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilization," and the Scots in turn paid close attention to French ideas.[23] Historian Bruce Lenman says their "central achievement was a new capacity to recognize and interpret social patterns."[24] The first major philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment was Francis Hutcheson, who held the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Glasgow from 1729 to 1746. A moral philosopher who produced alternatives to the ideas of Thomas Hobbes, one of his major contributions to world thought was the utilitarian and consequentialist principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words, "the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers". Much of what is incorporated in the scientific method (the nature of knowledge, evidence, experience, and causation) and some modern attitudes towards the relationship between science and religion were developed by his protégés David Hume and Adam Smith.[25] Hume became a major figure in the skeptical philosophical and empiricist traditions of philosophy. He and other Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed a 'science of man',[26] 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 behave in ancient and primitive cultures with a strong awareness of the determining forces of modernity. Modern sociology largely originated from this movement[27] and Hume's philosophical concepts that directly influenced James Madison (and thus the U.S. Constitution) and when popularised by Dugald Stewart, would be the basis of classical liberalism.[28] Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, often considered the first work on modern economics. It had an immediate impact on British economic policy that continues into the 21st century.[29] The focus of the Scottish Enlightenment 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.[25][30]

Francis Hutcheson, Adam Smith, and David Hume paved the way for the modernization of Scotland and the entire Atlantic world.[31] Hutcheson, the father of the Scottish Enlightenment, championed political liberty and the right of popular rebellion against tyranny. Smith, in his monumental Wealth of Nations (1776), advocated liberty in the sphere of commerce and the global economy. Hume developed philosophical concepts that directly influenced James Madison and thus the U.S. Constitution.[32]

Scientific progress was influenced by, amongst others, the discovery of carbon dioxide (fixed air) by the chemist Joseph Black, the argument for deep time by the gentleman geologist James Hutton, and the invention of the steam engine by James Watt.[33] In a similar vein, the University of Edinburgh's Medical School was arguably the leading scientific institution of Europe. Students from far and wide travelled to the university to study chemistry with William Cullen, James Black, and Thomas Charles Hope; natural history with John Hope, John Walker, and Robert Jameson; and anatomy with the Alexander Monro primus, secondus, and tertius.[34]

In many ways the foregoing names represent what could be called the first phase of the Scottish Enlightenment. The next stage, from the 1780s to the 1810s, consisted of a younger generation of scholars intent on advancing and transforming the scientific, political, and social ideologies of their predecessors. The end result was a reinterpretation and popularisation of the 'Scottish Enlightenment' as a set of ideals that were in turn significantly influential on liberal politics and the university systems of Britain, America and, later, Australia. The de facto leader of this movement was the mathematician, philosopher, and journalist Dugald Stewart. Other names include Sir Walter Scott, Alexander Fraser Tytler, Sir James Hall, and John Playfair.

Stewart lectured at the University of Edinburgh during the 1790s[35] and then took his views to the British public through his books and many essays in the progressive periodicals that circulated in across the British Empire. These late Enlightenment publications, combined with his many books, went on to have a profound impact on nineteenth-century utilitarianism, psychology, metaphysics, political economy, and, crucially, classic liberalism.



John Locke was one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers.[37] He influenced other thinkers such as Rousseau and Voltaire, among others. "He is one of the dozen or so thinkers who are remembered for their influential contributions across a broad spectrum of philosophical subfields--in Locke's case, across epistemology, the philosophy of language, the philosophy of mind, metaphysics, rational theology, ethics, and political philosophy."[38]


Mary Wollstonecraft was one of England's earliest feminist philosophers.[40] She argued for a society based on reason, and that women, as well as men, should be treated as rational beings. She is best known for her work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1791).[41]

Thirteen American Colonies

Several Americans, especially Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, played a major role in bringing Enlightenment ideas to the new world, and in influencing British and French thinkers.[42]



Benjamin Franklin was influential in England, Scotland, and the United States[45] and France, for his political activism and for his advances in physics.[46]

The cultural exchange during the Age of Enlightenment ran in both directions across the Atlantic. Historian Charles C. Mann points out that thinkers such as Paine, Locke, and Rousseau all take Native American cultural practices as examples of natural freedom.[47]

Dutch Republic

French philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650) proponent of the radical position

For the Dutch the Enlightenment initially sprouted during the Dutch Golden Age. Developments during this period were to have a profound influence in the shaping of western civilization, as science, art, philosophy and economic development flourished in the Dutch Republic. Some key players in the Dutch Enlightenment were: René Descartes, originator of cogito ergo sum, Baruch Spinoza, a philosopher that wrote on pantheism and a one substance philosophy as a critique of Cartesian Dualism; Pierre Bayle, a French philosopher who advocated separation between science and religion; Eise Eisinga, an astronomer who built a planetarium; Lodewijk Meyer, a radical who claimed the Bible was obscure and doubtful; Adriaan Koerbagh, a scholar and critic of religion and conventional morality; and Burchard de Volder, a natural philosopher.[48] ooo


Italy was changed by the Enlightenment and it influenced Italian philosophy.[49] Enlightened thinkers often met to discuss in private salons and coffeehouses; notably in the cities of [49] Another prominent intellectual was Francesco Mario Pagano, who wrote important studies such as Saggi Politici (Political Essays, 1783), one of the major works of the Enlightenment in Naples, and Considerazioni sul processo criminale (Considerations on the criminal trial, 1787), which established him as an international authority on criminal law.[52]



Prussia and the German States





In remote Königsberg philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom and political authority. As well as map out a view of the public sphere through private and public reason.[59] Kant's work contained basic tensions that would continue to shape German thought – and indeed all of European philosophy – well into the 20th century.[60]









German philosopher Immanuel Kant


In his famous essay "What is Enlightenment?" (1784), Immanuel Kant described it simply as freedom to use one's own intelligence.[69] More broadly, the Enlightenment period is marked by increasing empiricism, scientific rigor, and reductionism, along with increasing questioning of religious orthodoxy.


Zafirovski, (2010) argues that the Enlightenment is the source of critical ideas, such as the centrality of philosophes in particular to apply rationality to every problem is considered the essential change.[72] Later critics of the Enlightenment, such as the Romantics of the 19th century, contended that its goals for rationality in human affairs were too ambitious to ever be achieved.[73]


Social and cultural interpretation




  1. it was egalitarian;
  2. it discussed the domain of "common concern";
  3. argument was founded on reason.[77]



Dorinda Outram further describes the rise of the public sphere. The context was the economic and social change commonly associated with the Industrial Revolution: "economic expansion, increasing urbanisation, rising population and improving communications in comparison to the stagnation of the previous century"."[81] Rising efficiency in production techniques and communication lowered the prices of consumer goods at the same time as it increased the amount and variety of goods available to consumers (including the literature essential to the public sphere). Meanwhile, the colonial experience (most European states had colonial Empires in the 18th century) began to expose European society to extremely heterogeneous cultures. Outram writes that the end result was the breaking down of "barriers between cultural systems, religious divides, gender differences and geographical areas".[82] In short, the social context was set for the public sphere to come into existence.


Exclusivity of the public sphere

The word "public" implies the highest level of inclusivity – the public sphere by definition should be open to all. However, as the analysis of many "public" institutions of the Enlightenment will show, this sphere was only public to relative degrees. Indeed, as Roger Chartier emphasizes, Enlightenment thinkers frequently contrasted their conception of the "public" with that of the people: Chartier cites Condorcet, who contrasted "opinion" with populace; Marmontel with "the opinion of men of letters" versus "the opinion of the multitude"; and d'Alembert, who contrasted the "truly enlightened public" with "the blind and noisy multitude".[83] Iin France the aristocracy played a central role in the public sphere when it moved from the King's palace at Versailles to Paris about 1720. Their rich spending stimulated the trade in luxuries and artistic creations, especially fine paintings.[84]


Social and cultural implications in music

Because of the focus on reason over superstition, the Enlightenment cultivated the arts.[86] Emphasis on learning, art and music became more widespread, especially with the growing middle class. Areas of study such as literature, philosophy, science, and the fine arts increasingly explored subject matter that the general public in addition to the previously more segregated professionals and patrons could relate to.[87]

George Frideric Handel







Dissemination of ideas


Schools and universities





Learned academies


The history of Academies in France during the Enlightenment begins with the rising interest in science along with its increasing secularization, as evidenced by the small number of clerics who were members (13 percent).[96]


A Short History of Modern Philosophy






Similarly, a significant number of women participated – and won – the competitions. Of a total of 2300 prize competitions offered in France, women won 49 – perhaps a small number by modern standards, but very significant in an age in which most women did not have any academic training. Indeed, the majority of the winning entries were for poetry competitions, a genre commonly stressed in women's education.[101]

In England, the Royal Society of London also played a significant role in the public sphere and the spread of Enlightenment ideas. It was given a royal charter in 1662 by the King of England and was founded by a group of independent Scientists.[102] In particular, the Society played a large role in spreading Robert Boyle's experimental philosophy around Europe, and acted as a clearinghouse for intellectual correspondence and exchange.[103] As Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer have argued, Robert Boyle was "a founder of the experimental world in which scientists now live and operate". Boyle's method based knowledge on experimentation, which had to be witnessed to provide proper empirical legitimacy. This is where the Royal Society came into play: witnessing had to be a "collective act", and the Royal Society's assembly rooms were ideal locations for relatively public demonstrations.[104]


The book industry







Denis Diderot is best known as the editor of the Encyclopédie.







Natural history

, a 44 volume encyclopedia describing everything known about the natural world. Histoire naturelle




Scientific and literary journals




The Republic of Letters

French philosopher Pierre Bayle



The ideal of the Republic of Letters was the sum of a number of Enlightenment ideals: an egalitarian realm governed by knowledge that could act across political boundaries and rival state power.[117] It was a forum that supported "free public examination of questions regarding religion or legislation".[124] Immanuel Kant considered written communication essential to his conception of the public sphere; once everyone was a part of the "reading public", then society could be said to be enlightened.[125] The people who participated in the Republic of Letters, such as Diderot and Voltaire, are frequently known today as important Enlightenment figures. Indeed, the men who wrote Diderot's Encyclopédie arguably formed a microcosm of the larger "republic".[126]



Grub Street

Front page of The Gentleman's Magazine, January 1731

Darnton argues that the result of this "fusion of gens de lettres and grands" was the creation of an oppositional literary sphere, Grub Street, the domain of a "multitude of versifiers and would-be authors".[131] These men, lured by the glory of the Republic of Letters, came to London to become authors, only to discover that their dreams of literary success were little more than chimeras. The literary market simply could not support large numbers of writers, who, in any case, were very poorly remunerated by the publishing-bookselling guilds.[132] The writers of Grub Street, the Grub Street Hacks, were left feeling extremely bitter about the relative success of their literary cousins, the men of letters.[133]





It was Grub Street literature that was most read by the reading public during the Enlightenment.[136] More importantly, Darnton argues, the Grub Street hacks inherited the "revolutionary spirit" once displayed by the philosophes, and paved the way for the Revolution by desacralizing figures of political, moral and religious authority in France.[137]

Coffee houses




Debating societies



An example of a French Salon




Masonic lodges

Masonic initiation ceremony

Historians have long debated the extent to which the secret network of

External links

  • Diderot, Denis. Rameau's Nephew and other Works" (2008) excerpt and text search.
  • Gay, Peter, ed. The Enlightenment: A Comprehensive Anthology (1973) [2]
  • Schmidt, James, ed. What is Enlightenment?: Eighteenth-Century Answers and Twentieth-Century Questions (1996) excerpt and text search

Primary sources

  • Redkop, Benjamin. The Enlightenment and Community, 1999

Specialty studies

  • Jacob, Margaret Enlightenment: A Brief History with Documents 2000

Reference and surveys

Further reading

  2. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd Edn (revised)
  3. ^ Porter 2001, p. 1
  5. ^ Chartier, Roger. The Cultural Origins of the French Revolution (1991). The argument is expanded in Daniel Brewer, The Enlightenment Past: Reconstructing Eighteenth-Century French Thought Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  6. ^ Israel, Jonathan I. A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy. Princeton, 2010, pp. 49–50.
  7. ^ Israel, Jonathan I. Enlightenment Contested. Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. v - viii.
  8. ^ Israel, Jonathan I. Radical Enlightenment; Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650–1750. Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 3.
  9. ^ a b Israel 2002, p. 4.
  10. ^ Israel 2006, p. 11.
  11. ^ Israel 2010, p. 19.
  12. ^ Israel 2010, p. vii-viii.
  13. ^ Israel 2010, pp. 15ff.
  15. ^ Israel 2002, p. 3.
  16. ^ Israel 2002, p. 159.
  26. ^ M. Magnusson (10 November 2003), "Capital of the Mind: how Edinburgh Changed the World"Review of James Buchan, , New Statesman, archived from the original on 2011-05-29, retrieved 2014-04-27 
  31. ^ Israel 2011, pp. 233-269, 443-479.
  38. ^ Mack, Eric (2009), John Locke: 2 (Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers), p. 3 
  41. ^ Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Renascence Editions, 2000) online
  42. ^ Henry F. May, The Enlightenment in America (1978)
  43. ^ Israel 2011, pp. 443-479.
  47. ^ Charles C. Mann, 1491 (2005)
  48. ^ Wiep Van Bunge, ed. (2003). The Early Enlightenment in the Dutch Republic, 1650-1750. BRILL. p. 5. 
  59. ^
  60. ^ Manfred Kuehn, Kant: A Biography (2001).
  63. ^ Israel, Jonathan I. Democratic Enlightenment: Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights 1750–1790. Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 609-632.
  65. ^ Israel 2011, pp. 374-412.
  66. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, Greek history, The mercantile middle class, 2008 ed.
  68. ^ Outram, Dorinda. Panorama of the Enlightenment. Getty Publications, 2006, p. 29.
  79. ^ Melton, 8.
  80. ^ Melton, 4, 5. Habermas, 14–26.
  81. ^ Outram, Dorinda. The Enlightenment (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 12.
  82. ^ Outram 2005, p. 13.
  83. ^ Chartier, 27.
  84. ^ Daniel Brewer, ed. (2014). The Cambridge Companion to the French Enlightenment. Cambridge UP. pp. 91ff. 
  85. ^ Mona Ozouf, "'Public Opinion' at the End of the Old Regime
  88. ^ a b Beard and Gloag, Musicology, 59.
  89. ^ a b Beard and Gloag, Musicology, 60.
  96. ^ Daniel Roche, France in the Enlightenment, (1998), 420.
  98. ^ Roche, 515, 516.
  100. ^ Caradonna, 634–636.
  101. ^ Caradonna, 653–654.
  102. ^
  105. ^ Shapin and Schaffer, 58, 59.
  106. ^ Outram, 17, 20.
  107. ^ Darnton, "The Literary Underground", 16.
  109. ^ Israel 2002, p. 120.
  110. ^ Outram, 27–29
  112. ^ See Mackie, Darnton, An Early Information Society
  113. ^ In particular, see Chapter 6, "Reading, Writing and Publishing"
  114. ^ See Darnton, The Literary Underground, 184.
  115. ^ a b Darnton, The Literary Underground, 135–147.
  117. ^ a b c Outram, 21.
  120. ^ Spary, 289–293.
  121. ^ Israel, Radical Enlightenment, 142.
  122. ^ Israel, Radical Enlightenment, 143, 144.
  123. ^ Israel, Radical Enlightenment, 150, 151.
  124. ^ Chartier, 26.
  125. ^ Chartier, 26, 26. Kant, "What is Enlightenment?"
  126. ^ Outram, 23.
  127. ^ Goodman, 3.
  129. ^ Darnton, The Literary Underground, 13.
  130. ^ Darnton, The Literary Underground, 13, 17.
  131. ^ Crébillon fils, quoted from Darnton, The Literary Underground, 17.
  132. ^ Darnton, The Literary Underground, 19, 20.
  133. ^ Darnton, "The Literary Underground", 21, 23.
  134. ^ Darnton, The Literary Underground, 29
  135. ^ Citations from Darnton, The Literary Underground, 30, 31.
  136. ^ Outram, 22.
  137. ^ Darnton, The Literary Underground, 35–40.
  138. ^ Cowan, 90, 91.
  140. ^ Darnton, Robert (2000). "An Early Information Society: News and the Media in Eighteenth-Century Paris". 105#1. American Historical Review. pp. 1–35. 
  143. ^ From Andrew, 408.
  144. ^ Andrew, 406–408, 411.
  145. ^ Andrew, 412–415.
  146. ^ Andrew, 422.
  147. ^ J. A. Leo Lemay (2013). The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 2: Printer and Publisher, 1730-1747. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 83–92. 
  148. ^ Steven C. Bullock, "Initiating the Enlightenment?: Recent Scholarship on European Freemasonry", Eighteenth-Century Life, (1996) 20#1 p. 81
  149. ^ Norman Davies, Europe: A History (1996) pp 634–635
  150. ^ Margaret C. Jacob’s seminal work on Enlightenment freemasonry, Margaret C. Jacob, Living the Enlightenment: Free masonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe (Oxford University Press, 1991) p. 49.
  151. ^ Margaret C. Jacob, "Polite worlds of Enlightenment," in Martin Fitzpatrick and Peter Jones, eds. The Enlightenment World (Routledge, 2004) pp. 272-87.
  152. ^ Roche, 436.
  153. ^ Fitzpatrick and Jones, eds. The Enlightenment World p. 281
  154. ^ Jacob, pp 20, 73, 89.
  155. ^ Jacob, 145–147.
  156. ^ Reinhart Koselleck, Critique and Crisis, p. 62, (The MIT Press, 1988)
  157. ^ Thomas Munck, 1994, p. 70.
  158. ^ https://www.stmarys-ca.edus/default/files/attachments/files/Dalemberts_Dream.pdf
  160. ^ Roche, 437.
  161. ^ Jacob, 139. See also Janet M. Burke, “Freemasonry, Friendship and Noblewomen: The Role of the Secret Society in Bringing Enlightenment Thought to Pre-Revolutionary Women Elites”, History of European Ideas 10 no. 3 (1989): 283–94.
  162. ^ Davies, Europe: A History (1996) pp 634–635
  166. ^ Keith Thomas, "The Great Fight Over the Enlightenment," April 3, 2014The New York Review
  167. ^ a b Thomas, 2014
  168. ^ Lough, John (1985). "Reflections on Enlightenment and Lumieres" 8#1. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies. pp. 1–15. 
  169. ^ Jean le Rond d'Alembert, Discours préliminaire de l'Encyclopédie
  171. ^ Immanuel Kant, "What is Enlightenment?", 1.
  172. ^ Outram, Dorina (1995), The Enlightenment (1st ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 3,  
  173. ^ "The Abolition of The Slave Trade"
  178. ^ Chartier, 13.
  181. ^ Locke, John (1695). "Reasonableness of Christianity". "Preface" The Reasonableness of Christianity, as delivered in the Scriptures. 
  184. ^ Baruch Spinoza, Theologico-Political Treatise, "Preface," 1677,
  185. ^ Moses Mendelssohn, Jerusalem: Or on Religious Power and Judaism, 1783,
  193. ^
  197. ^ Darnton, The Literary Underground ..., 2.
  202. ^ "The Encyclopedia of Diderot & D'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & D'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
  204. ^ Downing, Lisa. "George Berkeley." Stanford University. Stanford University, 10 Sept. 2004. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
  205. ^
  206. ^ Sabbatini, Renato. "The Discovery of Bioelectricity. Galvani and Volta." Sabbatini, R.M.E.: The Discovery of Bioelectricity. Galvani and Volta. The State University of Campinas, 1998. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
  207. ^ Fieser, James. "David Hume." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.


See also

Person Dates Nationality Notes
Thomas Abbt 1738–1766 German Author of "Vom Tode für's Vaterland" (On dying for one's nation).
Jean le Rond d'Alembert 1717–1783 French Mathematician and physicist, one of the editors of Encyclopédie.[202]
Francis Bacon 1561–1626 English Philosopher who started the revolution in empirical thought that characterized much of the Enlightenment.[203]
Cesare Beccaria 1738–1794 Italian Criminal law reformer, best known for his treatise On Crimes and Punishments (1764).
George Berkeley 1685–1753 Irish Philosopher and mathematician famous for developing the theory of subjective idealism.[204]
Justus Henning Boehmer 1674–1749 German Ecclesiastical jurist, one of the first reformers of the church law and the civil law which was the basis for further reforms and maintained until the 20th century.
James Boswell 1740–1795 Scottish Biographer of Samuel Johnson, helped established the norms for writing biography in general.
G.L. Buffon 1707–1788 French Biologist, author of L'Histoire Naturelle considered Natural Selection and the similarities between humans and apes.
Edmund Burke 1729–1797 Irish Parliamentarian and political philosopher, best known for pragmatism, considered important to both Enlightenment and conservative thinking.
Dimitrie Cantemir 1673–1723 Moldavian Philosopher, historian, composer, musicologist, linguist, ethnographer, and geographer.
Émilie du Châtelet 1706–1749 French Mathematician, physicist, and author. Translated Newton's Principia with commentary.
Anders Chydenius 1729–1803 Finnish-Swedish Priest and an ecclesiastical member of the Riksdag, contemporary known as the leading classical liberal of Nordic history.
Francisco Javier Clavijero 1731–1787 Mexican Historian, best known for his Antique History of Mexico.
Marquis de Condorcet 1743–1794 French Philosopher, mathematician, and early political scientist who devised the concept of a Condorcet method.
Ekaterina Dashkova 1743–1810 Russian Director of the Imperial Academy of Arts and Sciences (known now as the Russian Academy of Sciences).
Denis Diderot 1713–1784 French Founder of the Encyclopédie, speculated on free will and attachment to material objects, contributed to the theory of literature.
Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro 1676–1764 Spanish The most prominent promoter of the critical empiricist attitude at the dawn of the Spanish Enlightenment. See also the Spanish Martín Sarmiento (1695–1772)
Christlieb Feldstrauch 1734–1799 Russian and German Educator and philosopher. Author of[205] Beobachtungen über den Geist des Menschen und dessen Verhältniß zur Welt
1700s French Encyclopédistes
Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle 1657–1757 French Author.
Denis Fonvizin 1744–1792 Russian Writer and playwright.
José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia 1766–1840 Paraguayan First president of Paraguay. Introduced radical political ideas never-before seen in South America to Paraguay, making his country prosperous and more secure than any other in South-America.
Benjamin Franklin 1706–1790 American Statesman, scientist, political philosopher, author. As a philosopher known for his writings on nationality, economic matters, aphorisms published in Poor Richard's Almanac and polemics in favor of American Independence. Involved with writing the United States Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of 1787.
Luigi Galvani 1737–1798 Italian Physician, physicist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the studies of Bioelectricity.[206]
Antonio Genovesi 1712–1769 Italian Writer on philosophy and political economy.
Edward Gibbon 1737–1794 English Historian best known for his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749–1832 German Closely identified with Enlightenment values, progressing from Sturm und Drang ("Storm and Stress"); leader in Weimar Classicism.
Olympe de Gouges 1748–1793 French Playwright and activist who championed feminist politics.
Alexander Hamilton 1755–1804 American Economist, political theorist and politician. A major protagonist for the Constitution of the United States, and the single greatest contributor to The Federalist Papers, advocating for the constitution's ratification through detailed examinations of its construction, philosophical and moral basis, and intent.
Joseph Haydn 1732–1809 Austrian Composer who revolutionized the symphonic form.
Claude Adrien Helvétius 1715–1771 French Philosopher and writer. Famous for De l'esprit (On Mind).
Johann Gottfried von Herder 1744–1803 German Theologian and linguist. Proposed that language determines thought, introduced concepts of ethnic study and nationalism, influential on later Romantic thinkers. Early supporter of democracy and republican self-rule.
Baron d'Holbach 1723–1789 French Author, encyclopaedist and Europe's first outspoken atheist. Roused much controversy over his criticism of religion as a whole in his work The System of Nature.
Ludvig Holberg 1684-1754 Norwegian Writer, essayist, philosopher, historian and playwright.
Henry Home, Lord Kames 1696–1782 Scottish Lawyer and philosopher. Patron of Adam Smith and David Hume. See Scottish Enlightenment.
Wilhelm von Humboldt 1767–1835 German Linguist, founder of the modern educational system, philosopher, diplomat.
David Hume 1711–1776 Scottish Historian, philosopher and economist. Best known for his empiricism and rational skepticism, advanced doctrines of naturalism and material causes. Influenced Kant and Adam Smith.[207]
Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos 1744–1811 Spanish Main figure of the Spanish Enlightenment. Preeminent statesman.
Vasyl Karazin 1773–1842 Russian and Ukrainian Enlightenment figure, intellectual, inventor, founder of The Ministry of National Education in Russian Empire and scientific publisher in Ukraine. Founder of Kharkiv University, which now bears his name. Also known for opposing to what he saw as colonial exploitation of Ukraine by the Russian Empire, even though he himself was ethnically Serbian.
Hugo Kołłątaj 1750–1812 Polish Active in the Commission for National Education and the Society for Elementary Textbooks, and reformed the Kraków Academy, of which he was rector in 1783–86. Co-authored the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's Constitution of May 3, 1791, and founded the Assembly of Friends of the Government Constitution to assist in the document's implementation.
Ignacy Krasicki 1735–1801 Polish Leading poet of the Polish Enlightenment.
Joseph-Louis Lagrange 1736–1813 Italian-French Major mathematician, famous for his contributions to analysis, number theory, and mechanics.
Antoine Lavoisier 1743–1794 French Founder of modern chemistry; executed in the French Revolution for his politics
Gottfried Leibniz 1646–1716 German Philosopher & mathematician; rival of Newton.
Giacomo Leopardi 1798–1837 Italian Poet, essayist, philosopher, and philologist.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1729–1781 German Dramatist, critic, political philosopher. Created theatre in the German language
Carl von Linné Carl Linnaeus 1707–1778 Swedish Botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. Known as the father of modern taxonomy
Mikhail Lomonosov 1711–1765 Russian Polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science.
James Madison 1751–1836 American Statesman and political philosopher. Played a key role in the writing of the United States Constitution and providing a theoretical justification for it in his contributions to The Federalist Papers; author of the American Bill of Rights.
Moses Mendelssohn 1729–1786 German Philosopher of Jewish Enlightenment in Prussia (Haskalah), honoured by his friend Lessing in his drama as Nathan the Wise.
La Mettrie 1709-1751 French Physician and early French materialist philosopher. Best known as author of L'homme Machine (Man a Machine).
James Burnett, Lord Monboddo 1714–1799 Scottish Philosopher, jurist, pre-evolutionary thinker and contributor to linguistic evolution. See Scottish Enlightenment
Josef Vratislav Monse 1733–1793 Czech Professor of Law at University of Olomouc, leading figure of Enlightenment in the Habsburg Monarchy
Montesquieu 1689–1755 French Political thinker. Famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, taken for granted in modern discussions of government and implemented in many constitutions all over the world. Political scientist, Donald Lutz, found that Montesquieu was the most frequently quoted authority on government in colonial America.[208]
Leandro Fernández de Moratín 1760–1828 Spanish Dramatist and translator, support of republicanism and free thinking. Transitional figure to Romanticism.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756–1791 Austrian A leading composer of the era.
José Celestino Mutis 1755–1808 Spanish Botanist; lead the first botanic expeditions to South America, and built a major collection of plants.
Sir Isaac Newton 1642–1727 English Lucasian professor of mathematics, Cambridge University; author, 'Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica'.
Nikolay Novikov 1744–1818 Russian Philanthropist and journalist who sought to raise the culture of Russian readers and publicly argued with the Empress. See Russian Enlightenment.
Dositej Obradović 1739–1811 Serbian Writer, linguist, educator, influential proponent of Serbian cultural nationalism, and founder of The Ministry of National Education in Karađorđe's Serbia, and founder of the University of Belgrade.
Zaharije Orfelin 1726–1785 Serbian Polymath-poet, writer, historian, translator, engraver, editor, publisher, etc.
Francesco Mario Pagano 1748–1799 Italian Jurist and philosopher, one of the pioneers of the modern criminal law.
Thomas Paine 1737–1809 English/American Pamphleteer, most famous for Common Sense (1776) calling for American independence as the most rational solution.
Marquis of Pombal 1699–1782 Portuguese Statesman notable for his swift and competent leadership in the aftermath of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. He also implemented sweeping economic policies to regulate commercial activity and standardize quality throughout the country.
Stanisław August Poniatowski 1732–1798 Polish Last king of independent Poland, a leading light of the Enlightenment in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and co-author of one of the world's first modern constitutions, the Constitution of May 3, 1791.
François Quesnay 1694–1774 French Economist of the Physiocratic school.
Alexander Radishchev 1749–1802 Russian Writer and philosopher. Brought the tradition of radicalism in Russian literature to prominence.
Jovan Rajić 1726–1801 Serbian Writer, historian, traveller, and pedagogue, considered to be one of the greatest Serbian academics of the 18th century.
Thomas Reid 1710–1796 Scottish Philosopher who developed Common Sense Realism.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712–1778 Swiss political philosopher; influenced many Enlightenment figures but did not himself believe in primacy of reason and is closer to Romanticism.
Adam Smith 1723–1790 Scottish Economist and philosopher. Wrote The Wealth of Nations, in which he argued that wealth was not money in itself, but wealth was derived from the added value in manufactured items produced by both invested capital and labour. Sometimes considered to be the founding father of the laissez-faire economic theory, but in fact argues for some degree of government control in order to maintain equity. Just prior to this he wrote Theory of Moral Sentiments, explaining how it is humans function and interact through what he calls sympathy, setting up important context for The Wealth of Nations.
Jan Śniadecki 1756–1830 Polish Mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer
Jędrzej Śniadecki 1768–1838 Polish Writer, physician, chemist, and biologist
Baruch Spinoza 1632–1677 Jewish Dutch Philosopher who helped lay the groundwork for the 18th-century Enlightenment.
Alexander Sumarokov 1717–1777 Russian Poet and playwright who created classical theatre in Russia
Emanuel Swedenborg 1688–1772 Swedish Natural philosopher and theologian whose search for the operation of the soul in the body led him to construct a detailed metaphysical model for spiritual-natural causation.
Giambattista Vico 1668–1744 Italian Political philosopher, rhetorician, historian, and jurist.
Voltaire François-Marie Arouet 1694–1778 French Highly influential writer, historian and philosopher. He promoted Newtonian ism and denounced organized religion as pernicious.
Adam Weishaupt 1748–1830 German Founded the Order of the Illuminati.
Christian Wolff 1679–1754 German Philosopher.
Mary Wollstonecraft 1759–1797 British Writer, and pioneer feminist.
John Locke, widely known as the Father of Classical Liberalism.
Benjamin Franklin was a major figure in the American Enlightenment
Voltaire at age 70

Important intellectuals










Recent work


Intellectual history


Some followed Pierre Bayle and argued that atheists could indeed be moral men.[190] Many others like Voltaire held that without belief in a God who punishes evil, the moral order of society was undermined. That is, since atheists gave themselves to no Supreme Authority and no law, and had no fear of eternal consequences, they were far more likely to disrupt society.[191] Bayle (1647–1706) observed that in his day, "prudent persons will always maintain an appearance of [religion].". He believed that even atheists could hold concepts of honor and go beyond their own self-interest to create and interact in society.[192] Locke considered the consequences for mankind if there were no God and no divine law. The result would be moral anarchy. Every individual “could have no law but his own will, no end but himself. He would be a god to himself, and the satisfaction of his own will the sole measure and end of all his actions”.[193]


A number of novel religious ideas developed with Enlightened faith, including Deism and talk of atheism. Deism, according to Thomas Paine, is the simple belief in God the Creator, with no reference to the Bible or any other miraculous source. Instead, the Deist relies solely on personal reason to guide his creed,[187] which was eminently agreeable to many thinkers of the time.[188]

[186] and a belief in God should not theoretically need force to maintain order in its believers, and both Mendelssohn and Spinoza judged religion on its moral fruits, not the logic of its theology.morals A good religion based in instinctive [185] Enlightenment scholars sought to curtail the political power of


Enlightenment era religious commentary was a response to the preceding century of religious conflict in Europe, especially the Thirty Years' War.[180] Theologians of the Enlightenment 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.

Religious debate


De Tocqueville "clearly designates ... the cultural effects of transformation in the forms of the exercise of power".[178] Nevertheless, it took another century before cultural approach became central to the historiography, as typified by Robert Darnton, The Business of Enlightenment: A Publishing History of the Encyclopédie, 1775–1800 (1979).







Like other Enlightenment philosophers, Rousseau was critical of the Atlantic slave trade.[173]

Political thought


Dorinda Outram provides a good example of a standard, intellectual definition of the Enlightenment:[172]












[165] In terms of their impact on revolutionary politics historian

The great enemy of Freemasonry was the Roman Catholic Church, so that in countries with a large Catholic element, such as France, Italy, Spain, and Mexico, much of the ferocity of the political battles involve the confrontation between the reactionary Church and enlightened Freemasonry.[162][163]

Masons and the French and American revolutions

On the nagative side, Daniel Roche contests claims that Masonry promoted egalitarianism' He argues that “the real equality of the lodges was elitist”, only attracting men of similar social backgrounds.[160] The presence of noble women in the French “lodges of adoption” that formed in the 1780s was largely due to the close ties shared between these lodges and aristocratic society.[161]

German historian Reinhart Koselleck claimed that "On the Continent there were two social structures that left a decisive imprint on the Age of Enlightenment: the Republic of Letters and the Masonic lodges.",.[156] Scottish professor Thomas Munck argues that "although the Masons did promote international and cross-social contacts which were essentially non-religious and broadly in agreement with enlightened values, they can hardly be described as a major radical or reformist network in their own right."[157] Many of the Masons values seemed to greatly appeal to Enlightenment values and thinkers. Diderot discusses the link between Freemason ideals and the enlightenment in D'Alembert's Dream, exploring masonry as a way of spreading enlightenment beliefs.[158] Historian Margaret Jacob stresses the importance of the Masons in indirectly inspiring enlightened political thought.[159]

Jacob further argues that Masonic lodges created a private model for public affairs. They "reconstituted the polity and established a constitutional form of self-government, complete with constitutions and laws, elections and representatives”. In other words, the micro-society set up within the lodges constituted a normative model for society as a whole. This was especially true on the Continent: when the first lodges began to appear in the 1730s, their embodiment of British values was often seen as threatening by state authorities. For example, the Parisian lodge that met in the mid 1720s was composed of English Jacobite exiles.[154] Furthermore, freemasons all across Europe explicitly linked themselveto the Enlightenment as a whole. In French lodges, for example, the line “As the means to be enlightened I search for the enlightened” was a part of their initiation rites. British lodges assigned themselves the duty to “initiate the unenlightened”. This did not necessarily link lodges to the irreligious, but neither did this exclude them from the occasional heresy. In fact, many lodges praised the Grand Architect, the masonic terminology for the deistic divine being who created a scientifically ordered universe.[155]

During the Age of Enlightenment, American historian Margaret Jacob argues, Freemasons comprised an international network of like-minded men, often meeting in secret in ritualistic programs at their lodges. they promoted the ideals of the Enlightenment, and helped diffuse these values across Britain and France and other places. Freemasonry as a systematic creed with its own myths, values and set of rituals originated Scotand around 1600 and spread first to England and then across the Continent in the eighteenth-century. They fostered new codes of conduct - including a communal understanding of liberty and equality inherited from guild sociability – "liberty, fraternity, and equality"[150] Scottish soldiers and Jacobite Scots brought to the Continent ideals of fraternity which reflected not the local system of Scottish customs but the institutions and ideals originating in the English Revolution against royal absolutism.[151] Freemasonry was particularly prevalent in France – by 1789, there were perhaps as many as 100,000 French Masons, making Freemasonry the most popular of all Enlightenment associations.[152] The Freemasons displayed a passion for secrecy and created new degrees and ceremonies. Similar societies, partially imitating Freemasonry, emerged in France, Germany, Sweden and Russia. One example was the "Illuminati" founded in Bavaria in 1776, which was copied after the Freemasons but was never part of the movement. The Illuminati was an overtly political group, which most Masonic lodges decidedly were not.[153]

[149] in Europe, from about 1700 to the twentieth century. It expanded rapidly during the Age of Enlightenment, reaching practically every country in Europe. It was especially attractive to powerful aristocrats and politicians as well as intellectuals, artists and political activists.Liberalism In long-term historical perspective, historian Norman Davies has argued that Freemasonry was a powerful force on behalf of [148]

