The Enlightenment Age, also known as Age of Reason, was

an intellectual, philosophical, and cultural movement that developed

in Europe during the 18th century . It had great influence on the
social and political processes of Europe and America until the
beginning of the 19th century .

The Enlightenment was a primarily European cultural and

intellectual movement that was born in the mid- 18th century and
lasted until the early years of the 19th century . He was especially
active in France , England and Germany .It inspired profound
cultural and social changes, and one of the most dramatic was the
French Revolution . It was named for its declared purpose of
dispelling the darkness of humanity's ignorance through the lights of
knowledge and reason . There was also an important Spanish and
Hispanic Enlightenment, but more scientific and humanistic than
political. The 18th century is known, for these reasons, as the Age
of Enlightenment and the establishment of faith in progress.

Enlightenment thinkers held that human knowledge could combat

ignorance , superstition, and tyranny to build a better world. The
Enlightenment had a great influence on scientific, economic,
political and social aspects of the time. This type of thinking spread
in the bourgeoisie and in a part of the aristocracy , through new
means of publication and diffusion, as well as meetings, held in the
homes of wealthy people or aristocrats, in which intellectuals and
politicians participated in order to expose and debate about science,
philosophy, politics or literature.

Characteristics of Enlightenment Movement

The main characteristics of the Enlightenment were the following:

 It spread among the bourgeoisie and certain parts of the

aristocracy. Their ideas were discussed in the halls
organized by upper-class ladies where philosophers,
scientists, artists, literati, etc. met.

 The proponents of Enlightenment believed that rational

thought was the only way to access true knowledge. You
got to know the world
through reasoning , observation, and experimentation .

 Enlightenment denied any form of knowledge that did not

come from rational analysis. Therefore, it considered
popular beliefs and religion as mere superstitions .

 Before Enlightenment, the status of people in Europe was

determined by their family origin. Enlightenment
out-rightly rejected this notion and held that all people were
born equal and had natural rights.

 Enlightenment believed in the possibility of both material and

moral progress of societies based on scientific and
technological discoveries. It was confident
that knowledge could improve the lives of individuals and
societies.

 Enlightenment questioned absolute monarchies and the

principle that the king's power came from God.
Background of the Enlightenment
The main factors that were responsible for Enlightenment movement
& contributed towards it were as follow:

 A trend since the beginning of the 15th century to

value human thought as a source of knowledge contributed
to the development of Enlightenment movement

 The diffusion of two philosophical currents that had

important development in the seventeenth
century : empiricism and rationalism . Empiricism held the
importance of observation and experimentation to know the
phenomena and rationalism, the use of logical reasoning.

 The English liberalism proposed by John Locke, who argued

that rationality was a natural characteristic of people and the
role of governments was to guarantee their natural rights,
that is, life, liberty, equality and property.

 The social need to find answers to new human concerns and

uncertainties that religion and governments could not
explain.

Impact & Influence of the Enlightenment

Some impacts and influences of enlightened thinking were the
following:

 It gave a strong impulse to the development of the scientific

method and the sciences as we know them today.
  Questioning of born privileges by Enlightenment was the
beginning of the French Revolution that ended the
absolutist monarchy

 In other monarchies, such as the Spanish, the kings practiced

a system called enlightened despotism. Although they
maintained absolutism, they adhered to the principles of the
Enlightenment and sought to provide their subjects with
education and the means to progress.

 The challenging of current political power, the idea of

​ ​ equality of people before the law left a great influence
all over the Europe. These were the principles that guided
the independence revolutions in the European colonies .

 In France, Enlightenment thinkers created an encyclopedia to

collect and disseminate all knowledge. This publication,
called the Encyclopedia or reasoned dictionary of the
sciences, arts and crafts , was completed over the years and
was the antecedent of current encyclopedias, both material
and virtual.

Leading thinkers of the Enlightenment

Some of the prominent thinkers of Enlightenment were:

 Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de

Montesquieu (1689-1755) : French philosopher. He
wrote The Spirit of the Laws where he established the
principle of the division of the powers of the State, in
legislative, executive and judicial domains.
 François-Marie Arouet, better known as
Voltaire (1694-1778) : French writer and thinker. Defender
of freedom of thought and reason about religion.

 Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) : Swiss-born writer. One

of his most important works is The Social Contract in which
he proposed that people are born free by nature and, by
accepting an authority that governs, they resign part of that
freedom for the general good.

 Denis Diderot (1713-1784): French intellectual, author of

numerous works and promoter of the Encyclopedia .

 Jean le Ronde D´Alembert (1717-1783): French philosopher

and mathematician, promoter of encyclopedism.

 Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (1743-1794): French biologist

and chemist. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier stands out as one of the
foremost thinker of the Enlightenment. He made great contributions,
not only to chemistry but to physiology, geology, agronomy,
economics and the philosophy of civic administration