2. • A period that witnessed the progress of science, politics,
philosophical discourse in the European society.
• It took place from the 17th century to the early 19th century
• This period resulted in significant changes in thought and
reason.
• traditions were replaced by exploration, tolerance,
individualism, and scientific endeavour that happened at the
same time as the developments of politics and the industrial
world, which were the reason in the emergence of the modern
world.
• Another name for this period is ‘The Age of Reason’
The age of Enlightenment
4. Stages of The Enlightenment:
• The Early Enlightenment: 1685-1730:
the beginning of the enlightenment where people witnessed the blossom of
science, philosophy and European politics.
• The High Enlightenment: 1730-1780:
This period focused on the dialogues and the French philosophers, such as (
Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Buffon and Denis Diderot ).
• The Late Enlightenment and beyond 1780-1815:
In the late 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century, the scientific
revolution happened in the United States, and also millions of people were
transported from Africa into Western Hemisphere.
6. • The English civil war:
The English civil war arose due to the conflicts between King Charles I and
the parliament over the government of England.
• Bill of rights in1791 :
A list of important rights that provides citizen with a certain limit of freedom
and limits the power of the government.
• The glorious revolution in 1688:
When Mary II replaced her father King James II from his throne along with
her son and her husband. This event changed the way England was governed
and allowed the parliament more power over the monarchy.
• John Locke’s writings:
John Locke’s writings had huge influence on enlightenment thinkers and the
enlightenment movement, especially his “Essay Concerning Human
Understanding” in which he discussed human knowledge.
9. • Enlightenment thinkers believed that reason enabled
people to understand and explore the universe and that
education and reason could greatly improve the human
race.
• John Locke argued that although human are subject to
God but we are all equal at the same time and no one is
better than anyone.
• The core belief during that time is that science can help
us understand all aspects of life.
Reason:
11. Scientific Method
• During the age of enlightenment it was believed by many that
science could explain the laws of human nature and society.
They believed that the scientific method was capable of solving
all issues.
• Enlightenment thinkers believed they had a chance to improve
society and help people to improve and understand the world
better.
13. Progress
• The core belief of the Enlightenment is that human and
society will always progress and improve. Their improvement
will continue into the future and it will stop until the
extinction of human race.
• This theory might have been proven by the progress the age of
enlightenment and the way it helped improve human
condition and the main reason for that progress that is due to
the development of natural sciences.
16. Political freedom:
The age of enlightenment influenced the beginning of
movements demanding better political structure,
freedom from the political tyranny people had
witnessed for centuries and also freedom of speech.
18. Scientific revolution:
The age of Enlightenment changed the way people
viewed things, people started to rely on reason more
than religion and it made people more passionate to
learn more about science and the living world.
20. Religious tolerance
The enlightenment movement initiated the move towards
religious tolerance in the eighteenth century which later
became religious freedom and a basic human right.
Enlightenment thinkers played a major role in making
religious tolerance a possibility when they asked
questions regarding the society’s intolerance toward other
people’s religion.
22. Enlightenment thinkers
Enlightenment thinkers share a lot of things but the only thing
they truly believe in, is to believe in their own thinking .The
most common thing they believe in was intellectual powers of
man in capacities in determining what to believe and the way to
act. The Enlightenment thinkers were able to compete with the
authority of one’s own reason and skill. They support their own
idea and it could be described as a religion because they support
whatever the idea was even if it was against customs and
traditions. They believe the Enlightenment is for awakening of
one’s intellectual powers, which ultimately leads to a far better,
more fulfilled human existence.
24. Most Known Writers of the
Enlightenment
• William Congreve (1670-1729)
• Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
• Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
• David Hume (1711-1776)
• Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
• John Locke (1632-1704)
• Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
• Voltaire (1694-1778)
26. John Locke
He is a great philosopher in the age of Enlightenment. His ideas had
enormous influence on the event of Epistemology and Political Philosophy,
and he's widely thought to be one among the foremost influential early
Enlightenment thinkers. He is usually considered the primary of land
Empiricists, the movement including bishop and Hume, which provided the
most opposition to the 17th Century Continental Rationalists. He argued that
‘every one of our ideas are ultimately derived from experience, and therefore
the knowledge of which we are capable is therefore severely limited in its
scope and certainty’. His Philosophy of Mind is commonly cited because the
origin for contemporary conceptions of identity and "the self". He also
postulated, contrary to Cartesian and Christian philosophy, that the mind
was a "tabula rasa" (or "blank slate") which people are born without innate
ideas.
28. William Congreve
Congreve was born into an old family of wealth in Bardsey, West
Yorkshire, his curriculum specializing in theology moreover as
Greek and Latin classics. Congreve often visited Dublin theatres
and was exposed to the foremost celebrated dramas of the time,
including Ben Jonson's ‘Volpone’ and Thomas Dufay's The
Boarding House. However, during the reign of James II, these
performances were banned. A reader of dramatic theory,
Congreve was possibly more at home with stage than most
young men of his era by the time he moved to London around
1689.
30. Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot was the most prominent author of the French
Encyclopédistes, which was a group of French philosophers
and critics of literature and art. He was taught by the
Jesuits, and when he declined to enter one among the most
known professions, he went to Paris, where he lived for a
while but he hardly had enough food or money to live on.
Over time, he became one of the most recognized and
powerful writers of his day.
32. Benjamin Franklin
Franklin was a true Enlightenment man who supported s
cience, rationality, natural human rights, free thought an
d morality. His ‘Contributions to the U.S. Constitution’
reflected Franklin’s Enlightenment principles of
philosophy, morality, science, matters of health, civil
affairs and politics. He founded a reading and writing
club called the Junto and therefore the American
Philosophical Society. He also founded the University of
Pennsylvania.
34. Samuel Johnson
He was an English, Poet, Essayist, Critic, Travel Writer,
Dramatist, Biographer and Novelist. He was also awarded an
annual royal pension by the Prime Minister Lord Bute because of
his reputation as the primary literary figure of that time, he went
Pembroke College but left since he couldn’t afford it financially,
which prevented him from becoming a teacher. He decided to open
his own school which only attracted 3 students so he was forced to
shut it. He succeeded as a philosopher when he went to London.
36. Immanuel Kant
Kant was a German philosopher who came from a family with a
modest background that would also be cited as poor (his father
was a harness-maker/saddler). his mother seems to have more of
an effect on him than his father. Also his mother was the one
who contributed greatly to his early learning. He contributed
greatly to metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and aesthetics that
he had a lasting impact on possibly every philosophical
movement that followed him
38. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau became one of the best and most
revolutionary thinkers to ever live. within the age of absolutely
the power of kings, Rousseau argued against the monarchy’s
divine right to rule, he rejected the absurdity of submitting to
coercion or slavery, stating that true political authority lies with
the people. He also upset the opposite major power of that age,
the Church, by arguing that every religions is equal in their
ability to instil goodness in people. The philosopher also belonged
to the Romanticism literary movement, of which he’s thought to
be one among the pioneers.
40. Voltaire
Voltaire has a distinguished place in the world because he was a
great symbol in the age of Enlightenment. A very prolific writer,
Voltaire achieved fame for his polemic satires and acerbic wit
(although he originally wanted to be a tragedian). He publicly
argued for freedom of faith and expression, the separation of
church and state, and wrote formidable attacks on the Christian
church and powerful French establishments. As his name
instantly evokes the battle against religious fanaticism yet the
love of tolerance and freedom of thinking.
41. Thomas Hobbes
Hobbes believed people are naturally selfish, cruel, and greedy.
► In 1651, he published a book called Leviathan. In this book, he wrote that people are driven by a restless desire for power.
► Without laws, people would always be in conflict.
► In such a “state of nature”, life would be “nasty, brutish, and short.”
► His idea: Governments were created to protect people from their own selfishness
42. Later Enlightenment thinkers might not have agreed with Hobbes…
►But, he was important because he was one of the first thinkers to apply reason to the problem of politics
►His ideas may sound harsh, but it was based on his own observations of human nature and reasoning
43. Montesquieu
Like Locke, Montesquieu was concerned with how to protect liberty from a bad government.
► He Wrote The Spirit of Laws in 1748. In this book, he described how governments should be organized.
► His idea: The separation of powers: By dividing different powers among more than one branch of government, no one
group in the government could grow too powerful
44. Each branch of government checked the other branches.
When powers were not separated this way, Montesquieu warned, liberty was soon lost.
He said: “When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person…, there can be no liberty.”
► Lasting Impact: He greatly influenced the men who wrote the U.S. Constitution.
We now have a separate legislative (Congress), judicial (courts), and executive (President) branch
45. Cesare Beccaria: The Rights of the Accused
In the Middle Ages, torture of criminals was common.
The rack was often used, as well as devices like thumbscrews.
► Beccaria, an Italian, wrote a book called On Crimes and Punishments in which he argued against brutal
punishments
His ideas: A person accused of a crime should receive a fair and speedy trial. Torture should never be used.
Capital Punishment (death sentences) should be done away with.
► “For a punishment to be just it, should consist of only such gradations of intensity as to suffice to deter men
from committing crimes.”
This means that “punishment should fit the crime” and not be more than necessary to stop someone else from
46. Beccaria’s impact:
Beccaria’s ideas were adopted straight into our Constitution’s Bill of Rights. In fact the US 8th amendment
prevents “cruel and unusual punishment” for crimes, and the US 6th amendment provides for a speedy trial.
(The only exception is the Death Penalty, which we still have in the United States today.
47. Mary Wollstonecraft:
► An English writer. In 1792, she argued that women deserved the same rights and opportunities
as men.
► Wollstonecraft believed education was the key for women wanting equality and freedom. She
inspired many later leaders of the women’s rights movement in America
48. Abigail Adams:
► Wife to John Adams, who was a leader of the American Revolution and later President.
► She reminded John not to forget women in the Revolution. “Remember, all men would be tyrannts if they could. If
particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies, we are determined to start a rebellion…we will not hold ourselves
bound to any Laws in which we have no voice.
