WHAT WAS THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT? - PHILOSOPHY - 2025

The philosophy of the Enlightenment was based on the valuation of knowledge and reason; enlightenment was pursued from reason and science. Thus, ideas such as freedom, progress, fraternity, tolerance and separation of state and church began to be given more importance, and less value was given to the church and the monarchy.

The Enlightenment was inspired by the new waves of rational thought of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with Descartes at the head and his methodical doubt, as well as the physical laws that characterized Isaac Newton's scientific revolution.

The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement (especially in France, England, and Germany and their American colonies), occurring between 1688 and the French Revolution. It had the declared aim of dispelling the darkness of mankind through the lights of reason. The thinkers of this period held that human knowledge could combat ignorance, superstition, and tyranny.

The Enlightenment had a great influence on economic, political and social aspects of the time. His motto, according to Inmanuel Kant: Saper aude! Have the courage to use your own reason!

That influence, in Latin America, was translated into the colonial breakdown and the independence movements, as well as in the ideas that were reflected in the design and construction of these countries during the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Enlightenment fosters the so-called knowledge revolution. For the followers of this movement, science and method are the foundations of progress. Criticism, which uses analysis as an instrument, will be the common denominator of the enlightened.

On the other hand, the Enlightenment generates a capitalist conception of nature, because the idea, defended by Bacon, that knowledge is power is established.

That is, the idea that the generation of knowledge implies a form of domination and exploitation of the forces and resources of nature.

Illustration and philosophy

The Enlightenment was influenced by the ideas of Blaise Pascal, Gottfried Leibniz, Galileo Galilei and other philosophers of the previous period, and the worldview that developed was nourished by the ideas of different movements:

• Anthropocentrism
• Rationalism (René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Nicolas Malebranche, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz)
• Empiricism (Francis Bacon, John Locke and David Hume)
• Materialism (La Mettrie, D'Holbach)
• Hypercriticism
• Pragmatism
• Idealism (George Berkeley and Immanuel Kant)
• Universalism.

Anthropocentrism

God and religion are no longer the center but the human being and, especially, his material and sensible reason. The notion of human progress arises as a continuous and indefinite process.

Nihilism (Casanova, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos), Freemasonry, Deism (Voltaire), agnosticism, atheism (Pierre Bayle, Baruch Spinoza, Paul Henri Dietrich), even libertinism appears in literature as in the Marquis of Sade, which is why it is said that the lights also reveal the dark side of the human being.

Rationalism

Within this current of thought, there is no place for anything other than reason and sensible experience. Passions and feelings cloud human reason and, therefore, hinder everything. Aesthetics is marked by harmony.

Rationalism was used as a way to demonstrate the existence of a supreme being, even when philosophers like Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau questioned institutions like the Church and the State. Leibniz formulated his philosophy of optimism.

Empiricism

The empirical and analytical reason inspired by the works of Newton and Locke, comes to the forefront and according to it, experience is the origin of all knowledge.

Experimentation is the way to understand the logic of the facts. The analytical method is applied to all fields of knowledge because it is believed that it was given by human nature itself. In this case, analyzing consists of observing the qualities of an object in a successive order.

Materialism

In this movement, matter is the only reality and, therefore, thought is a material phenomenon. Democritus, Epicurus and Lucretius were the first materialists and as such, they denied any dualism between a creation and a creator, between body and soul.

For a materialist, everything is explained by the movement of material particles without this movement requiring any transcendent cause.

But the materialism of this age postulates a nature that should be a guide for man, as opposed to religion.

This position was disseminated in the physiological sphere by de Holbach and La Méttrie, and in the social sphere by Helvetius. Also in this movement is inscribed the historical materialism of Karl Marx.

Hypercriticism

All of the above is doubted, criticized and improved. All knowledge that does not submit to secular and materialistic principles is discarded. All cultural expressions are used to challenge that knowledge.

All this criticism brings reforms: history is beginning to be rigorously documented; the sciences become empirical; political and social revolutions emerge with aspirations for fairer governments with separation of powers and the right to vote.

Societies are created to improve in all disciplines and thus begins the demographic growth that we still see today.

Pragmatism

It is a doctrine that takes as a criterion of truth the practical value of things and phenomena; only what is useful deserves to be done: art, culture, politics, etc., must have a didactic, moral or social purpose.

Idealism

This philosophy reduces reality to being, and being to thought. It privileges good taste and purism is the north in all areas. The temporal and the historical are excluded.

Universalism

From this movement cultural relativity is assumed. French is taken as the best. Utopias of collective government emerge that ultimately lead to the French Revolution.

Social and political philosophy in the Enlightenment

• Aristocratic Liberalism: Represented by Montesquieu, he argues that the origin of society and law is not found in the social contract but in the nature of man and the circumstances that surround him. An ideal form of government should be characterized by: separation of powers, intermediate bodies and decentralization.
• Political utilitarianism: they are conservative and materialistic.
• Rebellions and utopias: democratic ideas and the notion of the proletariat appear.

Ultimately, the Enlightenment was a time of progress in rational knowledge and improvement of the techniques of science.

Some believe that privileging reason over religion was what allowed movements such as the French Revolution or the American independence movements to take place.

And even though it was fueled by multiple philosophical movements, what they had in common was a firm belief in the value of human reason for the progress of society in all fields. Deductive analysis and naturalism star in the way of approaching reality.

References

1. Caldeiro Graciela. Philosophy and Enlightenment. Recovered from: philosophia.idoneos.com.
2. The illustrated little Larousse (1999). Encyclopedic dictionary. Sixth edition. International coedition.
3. Ruidiaz Guzman, Martha Cecilia (2011). The philosophy of illustration. Recovered from: lafilosofiadelailustracion.blogspot.com.
4. Salvador Benítez, José Loreto; (2011). Review of "THE PHILOSOPHY OF LATIN AMERICAN ILLUSTRATION" by Alberto Saladino García. Time to Educate, July-December, 309-313. Recovered from: redalyc.org.