The historians also refer the enlightenment period as the "age of reasoning." This was philosophical movement between the 17th century and 18th century that took place primarily in Europe and North America. Through this period the participants were participating in an illuminating human culture and intellect after the “dark” middle ages. The main characteristics associated with enlightenment include the rise of concepts such as liberty, scientific methods, and reasoning (Edelstein, 2010). The philosophy related to enlightenment was skeptical of religion more so on the powerful Catholic Church, hereditary aristocracy, and monarchies. The Enlightenment philosophy made its influence in American revolutions, ushering in the French …show more content…
Then the Enlightenment culminated the French revolution between 1789 to1799 and then followed the Romantic period. Among the major figures associated with enlightenment are Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, Voltaire, Isaac Newton, Jean-Jacques and Thomas Jefferson (Edelstein, 2010).
The scientific revolution contribution to enlightenment According to Edelstein a writer and historian, the ideas that led to the origin of “enlightenment’ started in the thirty years of war, 1618-1648. During this long and bloody war, the religious conflict caused a great deal of social disruption. This led to many questioning and criticizing the concept of welfare and nationalism.
According to Edelstein the exploration age in Columbus in which they discovered ‘the new world" exposed the men to a whole other cultures and philosophies (Edelstein, 2010). And after various years of exploitation by the regular churches and monarchies, the regular European citizens began to speak up and write. In addition, these years were faced with the idea of renaissance that gave men the ability to examine concepts more closely which was a great boost to the scientific study and the birth of the scientific …show more content…
Empiricism- the British philosophers, were the ones associated with empiricism philosophers, they included Hume, John Locke and George Berkeley (Sell, 2009). The empiricist argued that the human knowledge were controlled and comes from human senses and sensory experiences. The rationalist particularly the ones who lived in central Europe argued that the knowledge and untrustworthy came from the mind through the process of intuiting and conceiving ideas.
Major contributors of European enlightenment
John Comenius (1592-1670) - he was a Czech intellectual who believed in practical instruction and universal education. He played a great role in the introduction of pictorial textbook that were written in vernacular language rather than Latin. He called for the development of logical thinking and lifelong learning as opposed to other techniques such as memorization by rote. He called or education to be given to impoverished children and women (Frängsmyr, 1995).
Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) he was a Dutchman who played a key role in laying the international concept the natural law. He is recorded among the pioneers who engineered the idea of a society being governed by laws rather than use of force and warfare. He also played a part in campaign for the idea of religious