This essay examines the Enlightenment as an intellectual and cultural movement that emerged from the scientific revolution of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Drawing on Margaret Jacob's historical overview, the paper traces the movement from its roots in Newtonian science and the metaphor of light overcoming ignorance, through the recognition that humankind is part of the natural world, to the practical application of natural laws in politics, agriculture, medicine, and society. The essay highlights John Locke's influence on democratic thought and shows how Enlightenment principles shaped the American and French Revolutions, ultimately giving rise to the modern world's notions of democracy, equality before the law, and popular sovereignty.
In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, a scientific revolution occurred that gave humankind a far better understanding of the universe and its workings than ever before. One of those scientists was Isaac Newton, who, in addition to his work with gravitational laws, also developed principles of light and refraction. From this revolution in science came an intellectual and cultural movement whose name derived from a metaphor rooted in Newton's experiments with light. Called the "Enlightenment," this movement embraced the practical and marveled at the applied, and changed not only Europe but the entire world. The Enlightenment took principles learned through scientific observation and study and applied them to everyday life — including medicine, politics, nature, religion, literature, and more. The application of these principles in the real world gave rise to the modern world and its notions of democracy, economics, religion, international affairs, and nearly every other aspect of contemporary life.
The term "Enlightenment" referred to the illumination of the mind through knowledge and understanding. In this metaphor, ignorance was equated with darkness while knowledge and understanding were compared to light. When the darkness is removed by the light, one can see and understand more about the universe that surrounds them. Light is what removes the darkness and allows one to see, and when Europeans began to use science and logic to understand the world around them, this new understanding was referred to as "enlightenment."
The period in which "enlightened" ideals came to dominate European culture was given the name "the Enlightenment" sometime around the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries. While the exact origin of the term is unknown, what is known is that sometime around 1700, "the fashion arose of praising some people for being 'enlightened'" (Jacob, 2001, p. 1). Those who were bestowed with this honor were not constrained by the dictates of religion, read widely, visited intellectual centers and scientific presentations, or traveled the world extensively. In other words, "enlightened" meant being knowledgeable about the world.
As people began to become more knowledgeable about the world, they arrived at an important conclusion: that humankind was a part of the natural world. Until the acceptance of this principle, most people held to the religious view of mankind — that humans, as special creations of God, were apart from nature, and that the natural world was a gift from God for humanity's use. But a greater knowledge of nature demonstrated that man was but one species among the many species inhabiting this planet. Humans were no longer seen as categorically "special," and it became accepted that they were not only part of nature but also subject to its laws. This understanding extended to human endeavors such as society itself. Therefore, the recognition that humans are part of the natural world led directly to the understanding that humans were subject to natural laws.
This understanding led to the second defining element of the Enlightenment: the application of knowledge to the world. It produced advances in agriculture, medicine, machinery, science, religion, politics, and society in general. Some thinkers took the rapidly expanding knowledge of nature and used it to develop the modern sciences, the classification of species, a better understanding of geography, and the development of machinery that resulted in the Industrial Revolution. Others, like John Locke, applied knowledge of the natural world to human government and developed the idea that governments exist for the protection of the people. Locke's ideas went on to become a major part of the philosophical thinking behind the American and French Revolutions and the establishment of modern democracies.
Beginning with a better understanding of the natural world and humanity's place within it, the Enlightenment took this new knowledge and applied it to everyday life. In some cases, this led to the development of technology, but the most important aspect of its influence was cultural. European culture — and, by extension, American culture as well — is a product of Enlightenment principles, namely the application of knowledge gained from studying the natural world to the organization of society.
"Natural knowledge applied to government and industry"
"Enlightenment reshapes European and American culture"
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