The Effects of the Enlightenment

¶ … Enlightenment worldview and how it impacted society and human relations

The Enlightenment's emphasis on a rational understanding of the human condition marked a fundamental break with the previous worldview of the Middle Ages which preceded it. Rather than faith, the Enlightenment placed a new emphasis on scientific observation and rationalism as the best way to understand the world. It also stressed the value of human beings and the world of the here and now versus the hereafter. This disdain for tradition and celebration of reason led to a political revolution in both philosophy and government. More and more people questioned the divine right of kings and demanded a voice for the people in the way their government was legislated.

The scientific revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth century "undermines not only the ancient geocentric conception of the cosmos, but, with it, the entire set of presuppositions that had served to constrain and guide philosophical inquiry."[footnoteRef:1] Rather than conceiving of the universe as a mystery understandable only by God, Enlightenment scientists strove to understand the world from observations, facts, and calculations. "Newton's system strongly encourages the Enlightenment conception of nature as an orderly domain governed by strict mathematical-dynamical laws and the conception of ourselves as capable of knowing those laws."[footnoteRef:2] Newton conceived of the world as something predictable and rational that could be understood by humans. Its orderly nature meant that human beings, without the oversight of a religious or political authority could engage in a process of discovery and challenge existing norms, including the inequalities of their society. [1: William Bristow, "Enlightenment," The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2011, http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2011/entries/enlightenment (accessed December 29, 2015)] [2: Ibid.]

The rise of empiricism was also a noteworthy development during the Enlightenment. John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) was a seminal work in which Locke "undertakes in this work to examine the human understanding in order to determine the limits of human knowledge; he thereby institutes a prominent pattern of Enlightenment epistemology."[footnoteRef:3] Locke's Second Treatise of Government (1690) was also critical in establishing the notion of inalienable human rights that could not be taken away by a sovereign. Human beings naturally existed in a state of equality (versus living under a doctrine of the divine right of kings) and only conceded those rights in exchange for security and other social benefits. When the sovereign could no longer provide them, revolution was justified. The French philosopher argued for an even more radical version of government, a pure democracy of the "the general will."[footnoteRef:4] [3: Ibid.] [4: Ibid.]

The Enlightenment also saw the rise of an aesthetic known as Neoclassicism, or a celebration of the symmetry of the classical style in art and architecture, as well as a revival of classical scientific learning. There was also a questioning of religion itself: deism, a popular philosophy of the era, conceptualized the world as being put into motion by a divine authority like a watch, which meant that although God created the world's natural laws, he no longer took a material interest in how it was governed. Human beings now had that responsibility.