Key Takeaways

As the story goes , an apple fall on Isaac Newton ’s head one day and criticise some mother wit into him . After hammering out the ok point of a new sort of arithmetical calledcalculus , Newton decoded the force in the universe that bond everything together . No longer did a supernatural baron moderate thing in position onEarth– it was plainly a drawing string of numbers and operations sign of the zodiac that be " g. " His 1687 masterpiece , " The Mathematical Principles of the Universe " ( recognise simply as " Principia " ) , detailed the law ofgravity , transformed the scientific and cerebral community and show in the age ofEnlightenment .

text definitions of the Enlightenment generally concentrate on a group of French men , thephilosophes , rather than Newton . Often framed as a philosophic front , it ’s easygoing to oversimplify the Enlightenment as an elongated period of navel - gazing . But the watershed ideas thatVoltaire , Diderot , Rousseau and the others debated and scrawl down did n’t spring forth from a void . They were first ignited by scientific find and diachronic events that fundamentally alter their concept of the world .

Prior to Newton ’s " Principia , " Western Europe had already undergo intense political and religious transformation . TheThirty Years War , which lasted from 1618 to 1648 dismantled theHoly Roman Empireand left France as the most powerful fastness . TheProtestant Reformation , launched in 1517 , challenged the principles and self-confidence of the Roman Catholic Church . International trade and exploration foster cultural and academic exchange . In short , the world was expand as nations develop smaller .

Newton ’s Torah of gravitation relate our world in a very real sense . Without them , life on Earth would be a float spate of chaos . In a fashion , Enlightenment philosopher and scholar shared the same goal as Newton – to mine procession out of the chaos of human civilization . From thephilosophesin France to Adam Smith in Scotland and Immanuel Kant in Germany , academics across various disciplines applied their logical thinking minds to solve the persistent problem of the age . Then , Enlightenment thinking was put into action in two of forward-looking history ’s most significant social experiment : the American and French Revolutions . Those upshot tested the bound and strength of Enlightenment principle and get along out with radically dissimilar results .

But before Newton ’s " Principia " sparked the cerebral sea modification , the first flickers of the Enlightenment began with the two R ’s : the Renaissance and Reformation .

The Light Flickers: Roots of the Enlightenment

During the Dark Ages ( A.D. 500 to 1100 ) , scholarship pine away in Western Europe . TheHoly Roman Empire , which begin officially in 962 with the coronation of Otto I , was dominated by feudalism , and the peasant muckle had little entree to education . As dictated by the Roman Catholic Church , Latin was the rife language , and monastery and abbey were the centers of academic life-time . That setup left scant elbow room for noetic advancement .

But start in the 13th century , the lunar time period began to change . A revitalization of interest in definitive Greek and papistic textbook ignite a unexampled curio about the forcible world and man ’s place in it . While studying at the University of Naples , a Dominican monk namedThomas Aquinasgot his hands on the school text of Aristotle , which had been translated recently into Latin [ rootage : McInerny and O’Callaghan ] . Those readings barrack Aquinas ' hypothesis ofscholasticism , or the written report of nature as a way of explaining theology . Another monk , Roger Bacon , also read the peripatetic rendering in the middle of the 13th one C . From the Grecian philosopher , Bacon devised the notion of study the strong-arm public as a var. of piety , since it focused on God ’s initiation . These two musical theme , while conceived under the superintendence of the Roman Catholic Church , open up a place for the innovation and curiosity that culminated 400 years later in the Scientific Revolution .

The resurgence of interest in classical Hagiographa circularize beyond monasteries and fueled theRenaissancemovement in the 14th one C . Leonardo Bruni , in the same schoolhouse of thought as Petrarch , revitalized the Greco-Roman idea ofhumanism[source : McKay et al ] . Echoed throughout the Enlightenment , humanitarianism underscore the study of human race and their acquisition , rather than looking only to God and sanctified school text .

Then , the excogitation of the printing press by Johan Gutenberg in 1438 provided admittance to literacy for the quite a little . multitude start to shy aside from Latin translation , trust on their own native tongue for printing . The insistence also facilitated theProtestant Reformation . In 1517 , Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis to the door of the Wittenberg Church in Germany , signaling the start of the Protestant offshoot of Christianity . It , combined with the Thirty Years War , would shake the foundation of the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe . Heading into the 18th 100 , the fundamentals of society – religion , feudalism , Education Department – had been totally transformed .

The Copernican Crisis: Scientific Revolution and the Church

Referred to asnatural philosophy , science in the Middle Ages loop close with religion . The church building hold fast to Aristotle ’s writings about the structure of the universe since it complemented religious dogma . The Greek philosopher ’s geocentric universe was composed of 10 separate crystal spheres . Beyond the tenth sphere of influence repose God and heaven [ author : McKay , Bennett and Buckler ] .

One final result of the Renaissance was a renewed interest in uranology , and thatstar - gazing would inadvertently contradict the church ’s conception of the world . Nicolaus Copernicusshattered Aristotle ’s theory of the geocentricism when he advise that planets revolve around thesunin 1543 . Copernicus ' theory chuck out Aristotle ’s crystal spheres and enlarged the universe to infinite ratio . Though a Christian himself , Copernicus efficaciously displaced God and heaven and stripped man ’s fundamental role in the physical kingdom , which attract vivid criticism from both Protestants and Roman Catholics .

The divorce between scientific discipline and the church building keep in 1609.Johan Kepler , former assistant to astronomerTycho Brahe , calculated that the satellite orbit the sun in an elliptical , not circular , pattern . This also chafed against religious symbolisation that upheld the rophy as a planetary house of perfection . Around this time , in the former 1600s , empirical scholarGalileo Galileiwas perfecting his telescope . In 1633 , the Roman Inquisition institutionalise the astronomer with heresy for his theory that theEarthrotates on its axis , and he eventually forswear .

Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes constructed a philosophical backbone for these scientific breakthrough . Baconquestioned the judgement ’s power to solve the mysteries of the natural world on its own . He concluded that experimentation was a necessary component of scientific study and created thescientific method , which was publicized in 1620 . Most famous for asserting " I think , therefore , I am,“Descartesseparated the existence into judgement and subject . Cartesian dualism , as it became known , offered an innovative view on the private portion in the forcible world .

Synthesizing the geometry , natural philosophy and astronomy from the previous propagation , Isaac Newton outlined the three police force of gravitation in the 1687 publication of " Principia . " From there , Enlightenment intellectuals spanning the graphics and science would look to Newton as paladin of the human mind to answer the incinerate question of universe – rather than church ideology . Ironically , Newton and his coevals were devoutly Christian . Descartes , for example , attempted to conclude his way to excuse the existence of God . Though the church did n’t heartily embrace their find , the scholars did n’t set out to dismantle accepted instruction . That would soon change with the rise of the Frenchphilosophes .

Starting With a Clean Slate: The Enlightenment Begins

mass often think of the Enlightenment as a Gallic phenomenon . France emerge the victor in the Thirty Years War , and it was pick out as the international heart and soul for acquire in the eighteenth one C [ rootage : Carey ] . However , the ideological roots of the Enlightenment start in England thanks , in expectant part , to its more loose spiritual environment . A yr after " Principia , " the 1688Glorious Revolutionenhanced the great power of the Parliament and put the first Protestant monarchy of William III and Mary on the English crapper . before long after , in 1690 , John Locke write " An Essay Concerning Human Understanding . "

Locke ’s treatise posited a blank commonwealth of the mind at birth , which he referred to as thetabula rasa . human race ' mind , according to Locke , are form solely by experience and education , rather than innate feelings and preordained eccentric trait . A certain French intellect namedFrancois - Marie Arouetdevoured Newton ’s and Locke ’s Hagiographa after being exiled to England from 1726 to 1729 for openly criticizing the Gallic monarchy . Arouet would eventually go by the nom de plumeVoltaire .

When Voltaire return to France enliven by these fresh Enlightenment ideals , he fanned the flame quickly . In 18th - hundred France , salonsfacilitated intellectual interchange . organise mostly by aristocraticwomenand held in their homes , salon served as meeting position for scholars and moneyed layman to discuss philosophy , politics , organized religion , or whatever other topics simmered in the pedantic heavens . These forum provided necessary safe havens because Louis XIV ’s absolutism bring harsh censorship and punished detractors .

Some of the most large beauty salon member were thephilosophes , including Voltaire , Montesquieu , Diderot and Rousseau who valuedrationalismas the key fruit to progress . Voltaire vilify the institution of the Church and questioned the monarchy ’s despotism , but did n’t necessarily marry democracy . Instead , he considered the middle and lower grade " very seldom suitable to order themselves . " Conversely , Montesquieu , in his 1748 " Spirit of the Laws , " advocated for the separation of powers in the government , and Rousseau and Diderot stridently aggress the influential side of the wealthy [ reference : Cranston ] .

In addition to critiquing government , the philosophes also decried the political authority of the church . In place of Catholicism or Protestantism , many Enlightenment thinkers , include the American Founding Fathers , weredeists . In its simplest form , deist orthodoxy continue aclockmaker Godwho created the world , set things in motion , then withdrew from human participation . It was easygoing for intellectuals to rationalize , without fully abandoning religious faith .

The Enlightenment Outside of France

The Enlightenment did n’t leave England with Voltaire when he return to France in 1729 . However , the manifestation of the Enlightenment take issue from position to home . In France , the gentry patronized the artistic creation above all . There , lit flourish with seminal works include Voltaire ’s " Candide " and Diderot ’s multivolume " Encyclopedia . " England and Scotland , on the other bridge player , were relatively liberal due to the shift from Catholicism to Protestantism and the rising halfway class [ beginning : Gardiner ] . That surround promoted advancement in the sciences and economics .

Adam Smithfrom Scotland published " The Wealth of Nations " in 1776 , which laid the foundation for moderncapitalism . acknowledge the power of rival in the marketplace , Smith hypothecate that the " invisible hand " would channelise the economy without the motivation of government interference . Another Scottish philosopher , David Hume , was refer to as a geographer of human reason . Ever the doubter , Hume emphasise relying only on right-down truths like those found in math as the base for reason [ origin : Gay ] . Founding Father-God , including Thomas Jefferson and John Adams , practiced this sceptical temperance Hume advocated .

Enlightenment ideas of social and political reformation even trickled from the French beauty shop and Englishcoffeehousesto some of the leaders in westerly Europe . Catharine the Great , empress of Russia , corresponded with thephilosophesand image herself as enlightened . She unsuccessfully attempted to regenerate Russian law ground on Montesquieu ’s " Spirit of the Laws " [ source : Gay ] . Frederick the Great of Prussia invited Voltaire to take up residence in the purple court , to which thephilosopheaccepted .

Frederick the Great hadImmanuel Kantto thank for his condition as an Enlightened tyrant . Kant hail the freedom of the insistence and spiritual permissiveness that he patronise . The German philosopher , well hump for his motto " dare to know , " remains one of the most celebrated understanding from the period . A bookman ofmetaphysics , or the study of human existence , Kant believed that morality had to live alongside rationality knight thecategorical imperative[source : Johnson ] . This later served as the philosophic instauration of ethnical relativism .

By the former 1700s , the political situations in France and the American dependency had intensified . In France , the public under Louis XVI andMarie Antoinettewas growing anxious from the uprise debt . Across the Atlantic , the settlement in North America were jostle for independency . Enlightenment political theory would soon be put into action .

Enlightenment in Action: American and French Revolutions

The American Revolution rebelled against monarchy and the institution of the church , back up by Enlightenment theories . A proliferation of pamphlets and essays , including Thomas Paine ’s " Common Sense , " publicized the movement for independency in rightful Enlightenment mode . Thomas Jefferson , Alexander Hamilton , Benjamin Franklin and other framer of the Constitution adhered to the philosophy of rationalism over religion , skepticism over belief and democracy over absolutism . Liberty through the separation of powers wander into the founding documents reflects Montesquieu in special [ source : Modern History Sourcebook ] .

Perhaps because it happened away from Europe on a real tabula rasa , the American Revolution come after . The events that happened in France a decade by and by did n’t release out so well . On July 14 , 1789 , the newly shape French National Assembly stormed the Bastille and started a revolution . The reaction in the United States was miscellaneous . Some Americans see it as a European contemplation of their own struggle for nationhood ; others eyed thecoupwith great concern [ reference : Staloff ] .

The writings ofRousseaudeeply touch on Robespierre , the leader of the radical Jacobin Party [ source : Halsall ] . According to thephilosophe , people should abide by thesocial contractof general will chasten by reign . From there , it ’s up to the political science to bestow liberties unto the people . An utmost manifestation of Rousseau ’s social contract emerged as the Revolution coil out of control . Consider , for instance , theReign of Terrorwhen Jacobins seized control . The general will had spoken at the Bastille storming , and it was up to Robespierre to administer freedom . From 1793 to 1794 , the Committee of Public Safety kill off thousands , including Marie Antoinette – all in the name of liberty .

After the junk settled on the political dramas at the closing of the 18th century , the extreme rationalism and skepticism espoused by the Enlightenment had reached a limit . Some people did n’t wish to peer at human nature through the microscope of reasonableness . Romanticismarrived as the antidote . The geological era that take up with Newton ’s " Principia " shut with the publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge ’s " Lyrical ballad " in 1798 . In it , the poets wrote that " not by the mind , but the deep power of delight , we see into the living of things " [ germ : Wordsworth and Coleridge ] .

Voltaire would ’ve shiver at the sentiment .

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The Renaissance sparked a revival of stake in classical texts and humanism , while the Reformation challenged the authority of the Roman Catholic Church , set the degree for Enlightenment ideas .

The Copernican Crisis challenge the Christian church ’s geocentric view of the universe , contribute to conflicts between scientific discovery and spiritual beliefs .