Essay #1: Renaissance and the Enlightenment

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The Enlightenment Late 17th through 18th Centuries

Historical Context

The Enlightenment is also known as the Age of Reason. People of the Enlightenment were

convinced that human reason could achieve many things. Professor Robert M. Kirschen’s

teaching website at the University of Nevada, extracting materials from The Oxford Guide to

Philosophy, this period included several essential beliefs:

 Reason is man’s central capacity, and it enables him not only to think, but to act,

correctly.

 Both an individual and humanity as a whole can progress to perfection.

 All men (including in the view of many, women) are equal in respect to their

rationality and should, thus, be granted equality before the laws and individual

liberty. These are considered to be natural rights, the “unalienable rights” in the

United States Declaration of Independence.

 Tolerance is extended to other creeds and ways of life.

 Beliefs are accepted only on the basis of reason, not on the authority of priests,

sacred texts, or tradition. Thus, many Enlightenment thinkers embraced deism,

shorn of the supernatural and miraculous elements and designed primarily to

support an enlightened moral code, and in some cases to account for the fact that

the universe is a rational system, wholly accessible to human reason. For example,

some of the founding fathers of the United States, most notably Benjamin Franklin,

were deists. People, therefore, are able to discover the natural laws of the universe

through their rationality. Local traditions that owe their development to historical

peculiarities rather than to reason are devalued. Nationality is not important as all

individuals are united in brotherhood with all other individuals based on the

rationality all people share. (para. 2)

One result of this philosophy is that, as Prof. Kirschen states, there can be unending

progress in knowledge, technical achievement and moral values (2).

The Death of General Wolfe, by Benjamin West, 1770

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Many deists thought of God as the great architect of the universe and the universe itself as

a machine that, once set in motion, no longer requires divine intervention. The afterlife was

not the main focus of works here on earth, but for deists, the primary focus should be on

one’s achievements and on finding happiness here on Earth.

Another result of Enlightenment thinking is the idea of humanitarianism. According to

Dictionary.Com, the doctrine states “that humanity’s obligations are concerned wholly with

the welfare of the human race” (para. 2a). Before this period, people generally believed

that people who were less fortunate were being punished for some offense. Therefore,

helping them was, in fact, interfering with God’s will. With the Enlightenment came the idea

that charitable and philanthropic activities were acceptable.

Read more about the Enlightenment at the website of Prof. Paul Brians, Washington State University: http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/enlightenment.html

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Works Cited

“Humanitarianism.” Dictionary.Com. n.p. Web. 19 Dec. 2014.

Kirschen, Robert M. “The Enlightenment Period.” Course Handouts. University of Nevada, Los

Vegas. n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2014.

West, Benjamin. The Death of General Wolf. 1770. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Khan

Academy. Web. 21 Dec. 2014.