Major intellectual leaders of the Enlightenment

Path to the Enlightenment

What with the ideological turmoil occurring prior to most of 18th century Western Europe, the Age of Enlightenment was but an inevitable outcome. Religious and political thoughts littered Europe by the spades, and with the foreign revolutions and tensions that led up to questioning both divine right and religious authority. The Reformation, along with the discordant feelings toward the monarchy, became important turning points in history. Instead of blind faith, the Enlightened man turned to reason and science and believed in the utopian harmonic ideal. But exactly how did this Enlightenment come about?

Enlightenment was a movement that "strove scientifically to uncover religious truths rising above individual sectarian disputes" (Zhivov). Also simultaneously known as the "Age of Reason," the Enlightenment culminated in a set of values that sought to question the traditions, customs, and moral beliefs of the cultural environment. While the schools of thought differ from country to country, and from philosopher to philosopher, the idea of using rationality and science (Hermetic science at the time) to explain belief was the crux of the Enlightenment. Philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and Michel Foucault had differing views on the purpose of the Enlightenment, but the overall idea remained the same.

For Kant, the Enlightenment was "humanity's exit from a state of immaturity, [striving] toward wisdom and transition from blind obedience to authority to rational compliance with rules" (Gordon). It was a "coming of age" for humanity, focusing on the use of consciousness and logic reason as opposed to the blatant ignorance that the populace displayed prior to the time period. On the other hand, Foucault saw the process as "an event, or a set of events and complex historical processes, [that is] located at a certain point in the development of European societies" (Gordon). Both men touch upon the change of European society for the better, a "development" according to Foucault, and a "maturity" in Kant's words. In many other writings, it has even been related to the idea of a "utopia," a harmonic environment.

The Enlightenment followed a string of Western European movements: the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the Reformation. While the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution were both movements of artistic and intellectual pursuits, it was the Reformation that became an important aspect in the movement towards the Age of Reason. The Roman Catholic Church had turned into a corrupt, yet powerful system. In its climb to power and position, the Church underwent fleeting alliances, choosing to side with one current powerful empire at a time. Priests sold indulgences -- an outrage a certain Martin Luther discussed in The Ninety-Five Theses -- and pardoned various politicians with coin enough to pay their way to forgiveness.

Eventually, the English Reformation took place, wherein King Henry VIII broke from Rome and fashioned himself the Head of the Church and the State. At this schism, it was only a matter of time before Europe's religious factions broke into different sides; at first it was mostly a split between the Protestants and the Catholics. This eventually led to further factions within religions. Like the split of languages, religion became even more of a problem to many Europeans who practiced different faiths. The religious issue did not vanish once the Protestants broke from the Church; it was only the beginning of a more conflicted tension between Church and Church, and ultimately between Church and State. There were "catastrophic repercussions [in the] religious wars" that finally led to Enlightenment (Gordon).

The Reformation ultimately paved the way for monarchs to proclaim their divine right to the throne. Many despots claimed this divine right even before the Reformation took place; as far as Western Europe was concerned, it was King Henry VIII who declared himself the leader in both. Eventually, this belief passed on to reigning monarchs; the belief that they and their offspring were chosen by God to rule their respective countries. This political move undoubtedly caused much tension between the common-folk and the nobility, especially regarding the talk of hereditary right. This hereditary right would cause "fratricidal chaos [which] reigned in Europe," which plagued Western Europe afterward (Zhivov). Once the Thirty Years' War had ended, the development of the police state and the contract between the monarchs and their subjects became a major problem (Zhivov).

The Enlightenment strove to free itself from these limits of religious and political problems. It was "considered [a] cosmopolitan movement with 'freedom' in different forms," (Brnardi?), a "critical issue" within the "relationship between intellectuals and politics" (Rao). With the weakened links between the divided Church, and an even slimmer chain between the Church and State, it was inevitable that intellectuals of the time banded together to form a new ideal, one reminiscent of Sir Thomas More's Utopia.

An Enlightened man "was one who concentrated on developing social virtues," a "necessary human [trait] for living in civil society" (Brnardi?). Because of the blatant need to free themselves from a dependency on monarchy and the absolute power, those of the Enlightenment chose to believe in an ideal wherein a person could not survive without the help of the rest of society. Humanity was a collective force, a harmonized force against those who believed in power to one person, and one person only. Reason and science were the keys to unlocking an Enlightened environment, and it freed people from the religious and political turmoil of Western Europe.