ILLUSTRATION: HISTORY, CHARACTERISTICS AND REPRESENTATIVES - HISTORY - 2025

The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement that spread between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a hundred years also referred to as the “Age of Enlightenment”. It was known as a time of brilliant scientific, philosophical, political and artistic advancement of the modern age.

It is considered the period that began after the close of the Thirty Years' War in 1648 and ended with the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789. Furthermore, the Enlightenment was known as a movement that defended reason as a means to obtain a truth objective about all reality.

By Theobald von Oer, via Wikimedia Commons

The illustrators argued that reason could free humanity from the superstition and religious authoritarianism that had led to the suffering and deaths of millions of people. Also, the wide availability of knowledge caused a large number of encyclopedias to be reproduced to educate the human race.

The intellectual leaders of the Enlightenment saw themselves as a "brave elite," leading societies toward progress from a long period of dubious tradition and ecclesiastical tyranny.

Origin and history

Religious Wars and the Age of Reason

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Europe found itself immersed in a war of religions, being one of the most destructive conflicts in the history of mankind. This stage of humanity brought with it a great amount of loss of human life, as well as violence, famine and plague.

It was a war between Protestants and Catholics within the fragmented Holy Roman Empire and involved a large number of European powers. In 1648, policy was finally stabilized with an agreement between both religious groups.

After the violent European events, it was decided to change religious notions for a philosophy based on knowledge and stability, known as the Age of Reason.

Although for some historians the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment are two different stages, both are united under the same goal and the same result. The idea that God and nature are synonymous grew out of these events and became the foundation for enlightened thought.

Early illustration

After the closure of the religious wars, European thought remained in constant philosophical change. Its roots go back to England, where the greatest influence was brought by Isaac Newton, in the year 1680.

In a span of three years Isaac Newton published his main works, as did the philosopher John Locke in his essay on human understanding in 1686. Both works provided the scientific, mathematical and philosophical information for the first advances of the Enlightenment.

Locke's arguments about knowledge and Newton's calculations provided powerful metaphors for the Enlightenment and sparked an interest in and study of the world of knowledge.

Late illustration

The 18th century was characterized by progress in intellectual knowledge and by the improvement of mathematical, scientific, and philosophical concepts.

Although it was a period in which innumerable advances in knowledge began and developed, the absolutist monarchical system was maintained. In fact, the 18th century was the century of revolutions that again brought about a change in the mentality of European society.

In that same century the first Encyclopedia (The Encyclopedia or reasoned dictionary of the sciences, arts and crafts) was developed, in response to the demand for more knowledge not only philosophical, but also in scientific innovations and artistic findings.

The writing of the work was carried out by leading thinkers of the time such as Montesquieu, Rousseau and Voltaire, this being the first creation of the French illustration and properly of the Enlightenment as a new movement.

The intellectual leaders of encyclopedism intended to guide societies toward intellectual progress out of the beliefs in superstitions, irrationality, and traditions that prevailed in the Dark Ages.

The movement brought with it the beginning of the French Revolution, the rise of capitalism and a change in art from Baroque to Rococo and, more specifically, to Neoclassical.

characteristics

Deism

The term deism was incorporated in the 16th century, but it was not until the time of the Enlightenment that it became more popular. The term began to be assigned to all supporters of the so-called natural religion, which denied the truth and was accessible to man with the help of his reason.

The process of science demolished the last references to the Bible as the only source of knowledge. In this sense, they appealed to the need to develop a common faith, to return to religious experiences and thus found the true natural religion.

The enlightened deists believed in the existence of a Creator, but relegated the role of God as the author of the entire universe.

The deist thought was inevitably crossed out by the Church, which at first brought a series of conflicts when considering them as atheists. Later, the radicalization of the deists generated a tolerance that served as an inspiration for the movement.

Humanism

For the enlightened of the time, man became the center of all things, replacing God in this sense; everything began to revolve around the human being, the notion of God began to lose prominence and faith moved from God to man.

From that moment on, an exclusively secular and anticlerical culture began to develop. Within the Enlightenment movement, deism gained strength, as did agnosticism and even atheism.

Rationalism

According to the doctrine of rationalism, reason and experience prevail over emotion; that is, everything that cannot be included in rationalism simply cannot be believed. In fact, there are references that serve to support the idea that, in the French Revolution, the goddess of reason was worshiped.

For the enlightened, all human knowledge starts from that concept. The first to define such terms was the French philosopher René Descartes during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while later the Prussian Immanuel Kant emphasized the affirmation of reason as the obtaining of knowledge.

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism asserts that the best action is that which is maximized in utility; for the enlightened, society had to be educated before it was entertained.

Literature and art must have a useful purpose; that is, beyond entertainment, its main function should be consolidated in teaching. Many of the satires, fables and essays served to purge the bad habits of societies and correct them.

For the enlightened Spanish Benito Jerónimo Feijoo, the superstition that prevailed in the society of the time was a common error that had to be eliminated. Feijoo wrote a series of essays in order to educate societies and away from obscurantism.

Adoption of the classic

In the Enlightenment, the idea was adopted that to arrive at an optimal result or a masterpiece, the classical or Greco-Roman must be imitated, which translates into new conceptions in architecture, painting, literature and sculpture.

In fact, the enlightened leaders of the time argued that any originality should be discarded and that they should cling only to the Greco-Roman movement resulting in the neoclassical movement. In this sense, the imperfect, the dark, the superstitious and the extravagant were excluded.

Prominent representatives of the Enlightenment

Montesquieu

Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, was born on January 19, 1689 at the Château de Brède, near Bordeaux. The important consequences of the Enlightenment movement in the field of historical and political theories are due in large part to Montesquieu, the first French thinker of the Enlightenment.

Montesquieu managed to construct a naturalistic account of the various forms of government and the causes that made them what they were, which advanced or restricted their development. Furthermore, he explained how governments could be preserved from corruption.

His work, entitled The spirit of the Laws, was one of his most relevant works to political theory. His concept of the State focuses on a reorganization of political and civil law; the political to regulate the relations between the communities and the civil, the individual rights of the citizen.

On the other hand, he defined three forms of government: republics, monarchies and despotism. Montesquieu preferred the republics where the three governmental powers (legislative, executive and judicial) were to be separated.

Voltaire

Portrait of Voltaire, French thinker (1694-1778)

François Marie Arouet, known by the pseudonym “Voltaire” was born in Paris, France, in 1694. His critical spirit characteristic of Enlightenment ideology found its maximum expression in his anti-dogmatic thinking.

In 1717, due to an incident against a monarchical ruler, he was imprisoned in jail for a year. From there he was forced into exile in England, where he contacted British liberalism and empiricists.

Voltaire was a defender of freedom of religion, freedom of expression and the separation of the Church from the State. He was even known for being a versatile writer, producing a set of literary works, plays, poems, novels, and essays.

In addition, he was a defender of civil liberties despite the restriction of the time with its strict laws and censorship.

As a satyr polemicist, he made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, as well as the French institutions of the time.

Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva in 1712 to a modest family of watchmakers, who later moved to Paris where he had the opportunity to run into the philosophers of the Encyclopedia, in which he managed to write sections on political economy.

After a time, he separated from the prominent illustrated of the moment after his publication on the criticisms of civilization that he expressed in his treatise, entitled Discourse on the origin of inequality among men; two written responses to Voltaire.

Later, a work appeared as an exposition of his political theory entitled Social Contract published in 1762. This work has become one of the most influential and even current political theory publications.

Rousseau explained in his work the will of men to join together in community and that the legitimacy of social ties can only come from a pact signed by individuals.

By means of this agreement, men were to consciously substitute their particular inclinations of their individual will for the decrees of the general will.

Kant

Immanuel Kant was a transcendental philosopher of modern social sciences who was born in 1724, in the Prussian town of Königsberg, into a modest family that followed Lutheranism.

His comprehensive and systematic work in epistemology (Theory of knowledge), ethics and aesthetics greatly influenced all later philosophy, especially the Kantian school and idealism. Kant has been recognized for being one of the most important philosophers in the enlightened period.

The fundamental purpose of Kantian epistemology is the denunciation of nature essentially contradictory to reason. According to Kant, when reason is applied to metaphysical speculation, it is inevitably involved in contradictions, giving rise to the so-called "antinomies" (thesis and antithesis).

For example, the question of whether the world ever began or has always existed yields a rather specific result: it is impossible that an infinite number of years have existed up to the present time; otherwise, the antithesis holds that the world has always existed, since it could not have come from nowhere.

In this sense, through his work Critique of Pure Reason, he explains such antinomies, which is why he classified propositions as a priori (innate to the human mind) and a posteriori (originating from experience).

Adam smith

Adam smith

Adam Smith was an economist and philosopher born on July 5, 1723 in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. He has been known for being a pioneer of political economy and a key figure within the Scottish Enlightenment.

In addition, he has been known for his two key works: The Theory of Moral Sentiments of 1759 and An Investigation on the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations of 1776. The second is known as one of his most relevant works of the modern economy.

Smith, in his work with a reduced name "The Wealth of Nations", wanted to reflect on the economy at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and addresses issues such as the division of labor, productivity and free markets.

Smith succeeded in laying the foundations for classical free market economic theory, as well as arguing how self-interest and rational competition can lead to economic prosperity. Today many of his ideals are still valid in economic theories.

Related topics

Causes of the Enlightenment.

Consequences of the Enlightenment.

Philosophy of the Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment in Spain.

References

1. Age of Enlightenment, editors of New World Encyclopedia, (nd). Taken from newworldencyclopedia.org
2. Enlightenment, History Portal, (nd). Taken from history.com '
3. Age of Enlightenment, Wikipedia in English, (nd). Taken from wikipedia.org
4. Enlightenment, Brian Duignan, (nd). Taken from britannica.com
5. Enlightenment, Portal Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (2010). Taken from plato.stanford.edu
6. Editors of Encyclopedia Thematic Discovery, (2006), Encyclopedia Thematic Discovery, Bogotá - Colombia, Editorial Cultura Internacional: 217 - 230.