The period known as the ‘Enlightenment’ normally is considered as
“The Enlightenment” is the name by which are known both an intellectual movement and an historical period usually considered as having begun in the 17th century and reaching their height in the 18th.he Enlightenment also had roots in the period we know as the Renaissance. This was when, starting in Italy and France in the 14th century and becoming full-blown in the 15th, there emerged that characteristic figure called the “humanist.” We need to take care with our use of the term in relation to the Renaissance. The 18th century is known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason. Historians do not necessarily cut off historic periods strictly by dates, and the portion of the 18th century known as the Age of Reason generally refers to the period from 1715 through 1789.he 18th century is known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason. Historians do not necessarily cut off historic periods strictly by dates, and the portion of the 18th century known as the Age of Reason generally refers to the period from 1715 through 1789. Earlier philosophers whose work influenced the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon, Descartes, Locke, and Spinoza. The major figures of the Enlightenment included Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Adam Smith, and Immanuel Kant.he ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the church, and prepared the way for the revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries. A variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism and neo-classicism, trace their intellectual heritage back to the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment. The Enlightenment, sometimes referred to as the Age of Reason, was a confluence of ideas and activities that took place throughout the eighteenth century in Western Europe, England, and the American colonies.n Europe, Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were the torchbearers of Enlightenment literature and philosophy. Rousseau was a strong advocate for social reform of all kinds. He more or less invented the autobiography as it is known today. Famous People of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment or ‘Age of reason’ was a period in the late seventeenth century and early eighteenth century, where a group of philosophers, scientists and thinkers advocated new ideas based on reason.amous People of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment or ‘Age of reason’ was a period in the late seventeenth century and early eighteenth century, where a group of philosophers, scientists and thinkers advocated new ideas based on reason. Christian Wolff is the most important philosopher in the German Enlightenment Movement and was known for the systematization and vulgarization of Leibniz's philosophy and an important bridge to Kant's early dogmatic period (Kant was a Wolffean).n the other hand, in its narrower sense, on the other hand, the Enlightenment means the almost blind faith in the almightiness of human Reason. In this sense, Rousseau was against the Enlightenment in that Rousseau rejected the tyranny of Reason and advocated the return to nature and the revival of inner feeling. The Enlightenment has been defined in many different ways, but at its broadest was a philosophical, intellectual and cultural movement of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It stressed reason, logic, criticism and freedom of thought over dogma, blind faith and superstition.he Enlightenment held that there could be a science of man, and that the history of mankind was one of progress, which could be continued with the right thinking. The Enlightenment also had roots in the period we know as the Renaissance. This was when, starting in Italy and France in the 14th century and becoming full-blown in the 15th, there emerged that characteristic figure called the “humanist.” We need to take care with our use of the term in relation to the Renaissance.he Enlightenment also had roots in the period we know as the Renaissance. This was when, starting in Italy and France in the 14th century and becoming full-blown in the 15th, there emerged that characteristic figure called the “humanist.” We need to take care with our use of the term in relation to the Renaissance. A major cause for the Enlightenment was the Scientific Revolution which, because of its many achievements in science, gave rise to the expectation that similar breakthroughs might be achieved in the social and political arena if only the same methods were applied.he Enlightenment or the Age of Reason are names given to the predominant intellectual movement of the eighteenth century. It was an intellectual movement among the upper and middle class elites. It. Though it is typical of the Enlightenment thinkers of the eighteenth century (for example Voltaire in his Letters on the English Nation, 1734) to embrace Newton's physical system in preference to Descartes', Newton's system itself depends on Descartes' earlier work, a dependence of which Newton himself was aware.hough it is typical of the Enlightenment thinkers of the eighteenth century (for example Voltaire in his Letters on the English Nation, 1734) to embrace Newton's physical system in preference to Descartes', Newton's system itself depends on Descartes' earlier work, a dependence of which Newton himself was aware.
The Renaissance