The Key Ideas of the Enlightenment Essay - 1865 Words

This essay will be examining the key concepts of the ‘Enlightenment’ also known as â€Å"The Age of Reasonâ€Å" that occurred from the 16th and 17th century, before considering the manner in which it helped to shape the sociological view on societies and how it has linked to the birth of sociology. Before doing so I will give a brief historical context. All the profound questioning that emerged during the Enlightenment came out of the undermining of the old Catholic authority over all social truth that was produced by the Reformation when Luther (1483 –1546) and others had challenged this over-arching authority with the idea that each of us had our own personal relationship with God. This meant that we had to turn to ourselves and use our own†¦show more content†¦Such immaturity is self-caused if it is not caused by lack of intelligence, but by lack of determination and courage to use ones intelligence without being guided by another†. (Calhoun and Gerteis 2007, p.39). Both Kant and Descartes, and others of the enlightenment, were seeking to ensure a new rational basis for making judgements about ethics, epistemology and reason, and for these two, that basis was to be found in the autonomous use of reason. The beginnings of questions about society emerged with new ideas about the social contract and political order (Locke, Rousseau and Hobbes) and initiated the liberal condition. Before such questionings, ‘society’, often called the ‘common-wealth’, was assumed to be either divine or naturally ordered so this is how the idea of ‘society’ as separated from church, the individual became established in the first place. One of the important consequences of this new spirit of reason that really inflamed the enlightenment was the French Revolution in 1789 which stimulated the most profound level analyses of society, history and everything else (IEP 2004). There were also critics of enlightenment. The enlightenment has come under attack from Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) a German philosopher of 19th century, critiques the ideology of the enlightenment concerning Anthropology (Being) andShow MoreRelatedThe British Enlightenment And The American Revolution1538 Words   |  7 PagesAmerican Revolution was a product of the British Enlightenment as well as both American and British history. The Enlightenment was age of innovation taking place during the 17th and 18th centuries. During this period there were great advancements in science that pushed back religious superstitions, as well as developments in economics and political thinking. (lecture) The British Enlightenment specifically had a large impact on the American Revolution with key figures such as John Locke. 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