Literature Essay
The Age of Enlightenment 1620 C.E.-1780 C.E.
Eng 272
The Age of Reason
Reason, analysis, and individualism are elevated above traditional lines of authority
Individual thought and empiricism is asserted over traditional teachings
New thinking emerges as to the rights and liberties divinely granted to the individual
It challenges the authority of institutions that were deeply rooted in society, especially the Catholic Church
Francis Bacon (1562–1626)
“The father of empiricism“
Established and popularized inductive methodologies for scientific inquiry, often called the Baconian method, or simply the scientific method.
His demand for a planned procedure of investigating all things natural marked a new turn in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, much of which still surrounds conceptions of proper methodology today.
John Locke (1632 – 1704)
"Father of Classical Liberalism”
Popularized the idea of the individual’s right to own property.
Believed that God created each man with free will; therefore, the government must have the consent of the governed.
Locke's “theory of mind” is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self.
His “social contract” maintains that men must surrender some freedom to maintain a functional society.
René Descartes (1596 – 1650)
“father of modern philosophy”
his Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments.
Cartesian coordinates are named for him.
He is credited as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry.
His best known philosophical statement is "Cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am).
Sir Isaac Newton (1642 – 1726)
His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"), first published in 1687, laid the foundations for classical mechanics.
Newton made seminal contributions to optics, and he shares credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the development of calculus.
Newton's Principia formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation
Newton removed the last doubts about the validity of the heliocentric model of the Solar System.
Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a theory of color based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the many colors of the visible spectrum.
Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) (1694 – 1778)
Famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state.
He frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day.
David Hume (1711– 1776)
Beginning with his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), Hume strove to create a total naturalistic "science of man" that examined the psychological basis of human nature.
Hume held that passion rather than reason governs human behavior.
He denied that humans have an actual conception of the Self, positing that we experience only a bundle of sensations, and that the "self" is nothing more than this bundle of causally-connected perceptions
Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804)
Argued that fundamental concepts structure human experience, and that reason is the source of morality.
Kant argued that experience is purely subjective without first being processed by pure reason.
He also said that using reason without applying it to experience only leads to theoretical illusions.
The free and proper exercise of reason by the individual was a theme both of the Age of Enlightenment, and of Kant's approaches to the various problems of philosophy.
Olympe de Gouges (1748 – 1793)
An outspoken advocate for improving the condition of slaves in the colonies of 1788
An early feminist who demanded that French women be given the same rights as French men
In the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen (1791), she challenged the practice of male authority and the notion of male–female inequality.
She was executed by guillotine during the Reign of Terror for attacking the regime of the Revolutionary government.