Romanticism: The European Enlightenment

How did we discover gravity? What inspired the creation of the world’s first great democracy? What gave way to Romanticism? These questions were all answered in the eighteenth century, during the European Enlightenment. The European Enlightenment, also known as the “Age of Reason” or “the light of reason”, took it’s name from the idea it represented. It was aimed at placing science and knowledge through scientific methods of investigation. This intellectual, cultural and social movement took place in England, France, Germany, and other pars of Europe, and it’s main purpose was to improve humanity with rational thought. The Enlightenment is known to be one of the most historically important movements because these efforts prove to be successful

The scientific revolution revolved around intellectual changes that took place in Europe. These changes produced social values that allowed the European Enlightenment to come through easily. During the scientific revolution, European thinkers such as Isaac Newton, Rene Descartes and Copernicus tore down the series of “scientific” beliefs that were constructed by the ancients and kept by the church. To replace the existing flawed knowledge, scientists discovered true laws as they payed close attention to nature. The curiosity of the world started to spread, which lead to further discoveries. Even the church ended up putting forward alternate investigations because they believed that to study the world was a way of admiration for God’s work. Another reason that the European Enlightenment happened was because of the way most catholic lands, religion and state churches were identified as main sources of ignorance, and people wanted to change the way people thought. It was believed that humans could fight against ignorance, superstition and tyranny to form a better world, and the people were determined to do

Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) was a central figure in modern philosophy. He made a big influence on the metaphysics epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics that we study now, and he also set terms for the nineteenth and twentieth century philosophy. “He eliminated reason and made room for faith.” He once said, “All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.” Kant also wrote a book that revolved around answering the question “What is Enlightenment?”, and in his writing he mentioned how he believed that humans gave themselves moral law, which is the reason of their belief in God, freedom, and immortality. He theorized that all humans are born with innate “experiences” that relate to the world, giving them each perspective. He also proved God couldn’t be confirmed by pure reason or science. He crossed out chance as a reason for whatever happened in the universe, was convinced that knowledge is limited to the phenomenal world, and it was limited to the area of first-hand experience. Immanuel Kant hugely influenced the way countless people saw the world, and many of his words still remain to this