Age Of Enlightenment Research Paper

The Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was a time period between the late 1600’s and early 1800s in which Western Europe opened its mind about individualism. It challenged the old institutions in society, such as the Catholic Church. There was an emphasis on reason, analysis, toleration, science, and skepticism that was taking over in waves of intellectuals. It is known that Europeans’ willingness to learn from others and to try new things is the main cause of the West’s rise (Daly). This era of reform helped shape the modern West.

The Europeans’ willingness to learn from others and to try new things began in the Middle Ages and then gradually increased in scale, scope, and intensity (Daly 305-306). How the road was paved

From English Enlightenment to German, Swiss, American, French, and Scottish it was nigh impossible for them to be explained in such an easy manner. Each one approached it in very different ways. Their division developed from themes of Enlightenment such as rational questioning and ever changing belief.

Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, had understood the core of the cultural shift. The Latin phrase ‘Sapere aude!’ Translates to “Have courage to use your own reason!” The ‘Dare to Know’ feeling behind the Sapere aude phrase was to become to motto of the Enlightenment period (Kant P1). This phrase which Kant affixed to the movement is was shaped the age in its idea of free thought and reason. It was the courage of the individual to live by the motto Sapere aude that would fight despotism and society.

A historian named Peter Gay stated that the Enlightenment was able to break through the sacred circle, the relationship between the aristocracy, the church, and the bible which had suspended independent thinking. The old tradition of the Divine Right of Kings in which the held that the king was to be the leader and ruler of all was approved by the church, which in return the king would guard the church. The ideas of freedom and democracy came from the direct challenge of this sacred

In this sense it was the true beginning of modernity, as an open-ended, continuing progression, subject to constant scrutiny and re-evaluation. It had a very clear sense of the direction in which mankind was heading and why; but it never placed any limits on its future development (Pagden P 2). Even in the modern age we feel the effects of the era in which great minds changed their perception of thought. Logic and reasoning have become a central part to our thought process. Toleration for religion, differing opinions, and cultures have