The_Enlightenment

The Enlightenment The Enlightenment, The Age of Reason, was an 18th century intellectual movement based on reason, caused by the scientific revolution, questioned the physical universe and was centered in Paris. The modern Athens believed in natural laws - very secular and more logical than what the church was offering in the way of religion! Enlightenment thinkers felt that change and reason were both possible and desireable for the sake of human liberty. Enlightenment philosophes provided a major source of ideas that could be used to undermine existing social and political structures. The major themes of the era were: A. rationalism --* logical reasoning based on facts. B. cosmology --* new world view based on Newtonian physics and analysing of natural phenomena as systems. C. scientific method --* experimentation; observation; hypothesis. E. utilitarianism --* laws created for the common good and not for special interests. The Philosophes, not really philosophers, but men who sought to apply reason and common sense to nearly all the major institutions and mores of the day, attacked Christianity for its rejection of science, otherworldliness, and belief in man's depravity. France became the center for Enlightenment since its reason, enlightenment, wealth, science, major, laws, based, source, social, scientific, political, philosophes, paris, natural, nations, modern, logical, government, father, common, centered, belief, became, wrong, world, way, view, very, utilitarianism, unnatural, universe, undermine, thought, thinking, thinkers