Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that happened in the 17th and 18th centuries and reunited thinkers who had shared new ideas of rationality and science. It contributed straightly to the development of questioning and suggestions that were subsequently understood as philosophical. Enlightenment, also known as Age of Reason, Â had this expressive participation in religious doctrines and invaluable impact in the politics of the time leaving social teachings that until today people considered in a discussion. The major ideas were skepticism, religious tolerance, liberty, progress, and empiricism vs rationalism. Â
Enlightenment representants truly believed and defended that all men should use rational thought as a guide to improve knowledge and achieve wisdom:
The French phiposopher Voltaire (1694-1778) defended the concept of a centralized monarchy, which the ruler should be worship and advised by philosophers. He was a severe critic of the religious institutions, as well as of the feudal habits that were still in force in Europe. He supported that only the extremely mind gifted might know the divine purposes.
His work was an inspiration for the "Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen" (1789), for the French Revolution and for the Constitution of the United States (1787). Before âThe Spirit of the Lawsâ he wrote "Persian Letters".
His main work, "English Letters or Philosophical Letters" was a set of letters about the English customs, where he made a comparison with the absolutism's delay in France.
In spite of that, he was against any revolution, since he believed that the monarchs would be able to educate themselves rationally to fulfill them rolls.
John Locke (1632-1704) Â was English and affirmed that the mind was like a "tabula rasa", which means like an empty box. He rejected any concept based on the argument of the âinnate ideasâ as soon as all our ideas begin and end in the senses of the body. He fought the idea that God decided about Mankind's destiny and pleaded that society was corrupting the divine purposes as much as the triumph of the good. His ideas helped to bring down the English Absolutism.
Rousseau (1712-1778) was a Swiss philosopher who launched the bases for the European Romanticism. He was on behalf of the âsocial contractâ, that was a form of promoting social justice and gives the name to his main work. He proclamed that the private property was producing the inequality between men. According to him, men would have been bribed by the society when the popular sovereignty had finished.
The French philosopher and jurist Montesquieu (1689-1755) was one of the creators of the philosophy of the history. It criticized the systematic form the political authoritarianism, as well as the traditions of the European institutions, especially of the English monarchy. In his main work, âThe Spirit of the Lawsâ, he defends the separation of three powers of the State in Legislative, Executive and Judicial. He believed that this is a way of maintaining individual rights.
His work was an inspiration for the "Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen" (1789), for the French Revolution and for the Constitution of the United States (1787). Before âThe Spirit of the Lawsâ he wrote "Persian Letters".
