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1 day ago · The Age of Enlightenment (also the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment) was the intellectual and philosophical movement that occurred in Europe in the 17th and the 18th centuries.
May 26, 2024 · The Enlightenment was a complex and multifaceted movement that defies easy summary or characterization. At its core, it was a philosophical project that sought to apply the tools of reason and science to every aspect of human life, from politics and economics to art and education.
3 days ago · “Voltaire” is the pen name under which French author-philosopher François-Marie Arouet published a number of books and pamphlets in the 18th century. He was a key figure in the European intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment. Voltaire was quite controversial in his day, in no small part because of the critical nature of his work.
- Voltaire was a versatile and prolific writer. In his lifetime he published numerous works, including books, plays, poems, and polemics. His most fa...
- Voltaire believed above all in the efficacy of reason. He believed social progress could be achieved through reason and that no authority—religious...
- Voltaire dominated the discourse of his era. In his writing, he left virtually no subject untouched. Voltaire wrote on subjects as distinct as meta...
May 26, 2024 · The Enlightenment emerged in response to the political and religious orthodoxies that had long held sway in Europe. The 1600s had been wracked by sectarian conflict, including the devastating Thirty Years‘ War, as well as the entrenchment of absolutist monarchies that ruled by divine right.
May 27, 2024 · The Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, blossomed from this philosophical seed, spanning the late-17th to late-18th centuries. Unlike the Renaissance, which permeated elite circles, the Enlightenment was a grassroots movement, igniting a societal revolution.
May 15, 2024 · Montesquieu, French political philosopher whose principal work, The Spirit of Laws, was a major contribution to political theory. It inspired the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Constitution of the United States.
May 29, 2024 · Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss-born philosopher, writer, and political theorist whose treatises and novels inspired the leaders of the French Revolution and the Romantic generation. Although he was the least academic of modern philosophers, he was also in many ways the most influential.
