Enlightenment Features,notes

                       Enlightenment and its Features 

Enlightenment and it's features

Enlightenment was a term designating an European intellectual phenomena that affected cultural and social life in the 18th century . It was in philosophical movement which originated in France but gradually spread over much of Europe  and America in the 17th and 18th century .France had developed a suitable climate for intellectual discourse conference / discussion in which many ideas were exchanged and discussed .

The French word Philosophies was used as a label to describe the activities of there french men who engaged themselves with The ideas of the enlightenment . The word "philosophi" referred to a free thinker who work towards the thesis of the enlightenment in the 18th Century.

                           Features Of Enlightenment

(1)Age of Science and Reason

The enlightenment celebrated reason, the scientific method of human beings ability to perfect themselves and their society .
It grew out of a no. Of 17th intellectual achievement , particularly the Discoveries of "Law of Motion" by Sir Issac Newton ,the rationalism of Descartes And Piereeboyle .LOCKE’S principle of NATURAL RIGHT and NATURAL LAW, SPINOZA’S POLITICAL CONCEPTS,  the SCIENTIFIC THEORIES of W. HARVEY  and HALLY all combined to lay the foundation of the 18th century Enlightenment.

(2) Declination of Magic,Miracle and superstition

This was obviously the results of Materialistic and scientific Thinking. In the age of enlightenment people not only ceased to fear devil but also the God. God was taken more as the creator of the universe .God was compared to a watchmaker and the universe as a watch.

(3) Liberation of knowledge from the bondage of tradition

English thinkers like Newton and Locke along with the french Voltaire liberated knowledge from the bondage of tradition.
Locke's belief that human knowledge is founded on the basis observation and experience encouraged new theories of education and development.

(4)High ambitious of Enlightenment Thinkers

They attempted to unify and organise knowledge into one composite whole and firmly believed that there was nothing in the world which could not be explained by reason .they believed in understanding these various aspects by reducing them to a set of laws governed by reason.

(5)Spirit of Secularism

Religious orthodoxy began to decline as a result of newly emerging rationalism. Churches and churchmen gradually lost out in prestige and leadership. Politics, economy and trade were no longer subjected to religious ends. The religious bondage was thrown off.

In this way enlightenment as a philosophical movement accorded highest position to reason and placed it even higher than religion or individual faith . It this brought about a radical change in man's attitude to self , nature and society


PREVIOUS POST

SALIENT FEATURES OF NEO CLASSICAL LITERATURE