The role of Enlightenment period in English literature

The aim of the course work is to get acquainted with literature of the Enlightenment, an in-depth analysis of the philosophical views of the enlighteners of that period. At the same time, it is important to analyze the works of enlighteners, to shed light on the main ideas in them, and to study the knowledge about the impact of these works on the present.The period of national awakening was a time for the development of scientific , philosophical , and social thought . At the heart of this intellectual movement lies the ideas of rationalism ( the philosophical orientation that is the basis of reason and human behavior ) and free thinking . Literature and art play an important role in enlightenment efforts . Enlighteners have been involved in the education and development of the community and in the development of high emotions .

1.The members of Enlightenment movement
The Age of Enlightenment (also known as the Enlightenment)was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries with global influences and effects.³The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on the value of human happiness, the pursuit of knowledge obtained by means of reason and the evidence of the senses, and ideal such as liberty , progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state.
The Enlightenment produced the first modern secularized theories of psychology and ethics. John Locke conceived of the human mind as being at birth a tabula rasa, a blank slate on which experience wrote freely and boldly, creating the individual character according to the individual experience of the world. Supposed innate qualities, such as goodness or original sin, had no reality. In a darker vein, Thomas Hobbes portrayed humans as moved solely by considerations of their own pleasure and pain. The notion of humans as neither good nor bad but interested principally in survival and the maximization of their own pleasure led to radical political theories. Where the state had once been viewed as an earthly approximation of an eternal order, with the City of Man modeled on the City of God, now it came to be seen as a mutually beneficial arrangement among humans aimed at protecting the natural rights and self-interest of each.The idea of society as a social contract, however, contrasted sharply with the realities of actual societies. Thus, the Enlightenment became critical, reforming, and eventually revolutionary. Locke and Jeremy Bentham in England, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Denis Diderot, and Condorcet in France, and Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson in colonial America all contributed to an evolving critique of the arbitrary, authoritarian state and to sketching the outline of a higher form of social organization, based on natural rights and functioning as a political democracy. Such powerful ideas found expression as reform in England and as revolution in France and America.The Enlightenment has its roots in a European intellectual and scholarly movement known as Renaissance humanism and was also preceded by the Scientific Revolution and the work of Francis Bacon, among others. Some date the beginning of the Enlightenment back to the publication of René Descartes' Discourse on the Method in 1637, featuring his famous dictum, Cogito, ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am"). Others cite the publication of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica (1687) as the culmination of the Scientific Revolution and the beginning of the Enlightenment. European historians traditionally date its beginning with the death of Louis XIV of France in 1715 and its end with the 1789 outbreak of the French Revolution. Many historians now date the end of the Enlightenment as the start of the 19th century, with the latest proposed year being the death of Immanuel Kant in 1804.Philosophers and scientists of the period widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffeehouses and in printed books, journals, and pamphlets. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Catholic Church and paved the way for the political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries. A variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism, communism, and neoclassicism, trace their intellectual heritage to the Enlightenment.⁴In France, the central doctrines of the Enlightenment philosophers were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Church. The Enlightenment was marked by an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism, along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy—an attitude captured by Immanuel Kant's essay Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment, where the phrase Sapere aude (Dare to know) can be found.
The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the Scientific Revolution.Earlier philosophers whose work influenced the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon and René Descartes. Some of the major figures of the Enlightenment included Cesare Beccaria, Denis Diderot, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, John Locke, Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Hugo Grotius, Baruch Spinoza, and Voltaire.⁵One particularly influential Enlightenment publication was the Encyclopédie (Encyclopedia). Published between 1751 and 1772 in thirty-five volumes, it was compiled by Denis Diderot, Jean le Rond d'Alembert, and a team of 150 other intellectuals. The Encyclopédie helped in spreading the ideas of the Enlightenment across Europe and beyond.Other landmark publications of the Enlightenment included Voltaire's Letters on the English (1733) and Dictionnaire philosophique (Philosophical Dictionary; 1764); Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature (1740); Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws (1748); Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality (1754) and The Social Contract (1762); Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and The Wealth of Nations (1776); and Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (1781).Enlightenment thought was deeply influential in the political realm. European rulers such as Catherine II of Russia, Joseph II of Austria and Frederick II of Prussia tried to apply Enlightenment thought on religious and political tolerance, which became known as enlightened absolutism.Many of the major political and intellectual figures behind the American Revolution associated themselves closely with the Enlightenment: Benjamin Franklin visited Europe repeatedly and contributed actively to the scientific and political debates there and brought the newest ideas back to Philadelphia; Thomas Jefferson closely followed European ideas and later incorporated some of the ideals of the Enlightenment into the Declaration of Independence; and James Madison incorporated these ideals into the United States Constitution during its framing in 1787.The ideas of the Enlightenment also played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789.
Here the famous members of Enlightenment period in English literature:
1. Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
Sir Francis Bacon was an eminent philosopher, statesman and scientist. While he did not personally make any major scientific discoveries, he became known for laying down the practical methods of scientific investigation based on observation and reason as a means of reaching a logical conclusion.Entirely innovative at the time, Bacon championed a new scientific method that involved gathering data and analyzing it by performing experiments to observe nature’s truths in an organized way. Through this approach, science could be utilized as a tool to better humankind by expanding common knowledge of the world.
2. Rene Descartes (1596–1650)
Best known for the saying ‘Cogito ergo sum’ (I think therefore I am), Descartes was a French philosopher and mathematician who revolutionised philosophy, algebra and geometry. Like many philosphers of the enlightened era, Descartes didn’t like to believe anything without examining why he believed it.Known as the ‘Method of Cartesian Doubt’, Descartes claimed that one should never simply accept anything as true if there was even the slightest possibility that it wasn’t. In this respect he was heavily influenced by Francis Bacon and developed his own deductive approach, using maths and logic, to solving and understanding life’s many mysteries.Documentary, using the academic expertise of Professor Christer Petley at the University of Southampton, exploring the rise of the Abolition movement in Britain in the late 18th century and its ultimate success in passing a bill (1807 Abolition Act) that outlawed the trade in Africans across the Atlantic to the brutal plantation systems established in the Americas.
3. John Locke (1632–1704)
Locke was one of the most influential philosophers of the Enlightenment, who focused specifically on how systems of governments could be formed. In his Two Treatises of Government he heralded the idea of a representative government that would best serve all the people.Locke’s writing influenced many philosphers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant a⁷nd Thomas Paine who would later inspire the revolutions of the late-18th century. This was because his work was based fundamentally on the theory of rights – the belief that men are free and equal by nature, against claims that God had made all people naturally subject to a monarch.Locke’s most important contribution to the Enlightenment was his belief that the human mind was a blank slate (a “tabula rasa”), which developed based on experience. In order to develop and become enlightened humans needed to view themselves as ignoramuses, void of any inherent knowledge, obligation or servitude. Accepting one’s ignorance was the first step to self improvement, and every man had a right to do so.
4. Frederick the Great (1712–1786)
While most monarchs feared the Enlightenment, as it challenged their authority and divine right to rule, Frederick the Great of Prussia truly embraced it. He supported artists and writers such as Voltaire, and believed that a monarch’s first duty was to promote the benefit of his people – even if this meant encouraging individualistic thinking further scrutiny of long-established institutions.The second ever History Hit live show saw Dan talking about ghosts with Martha McGill, the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Warwick. How do ghosts change throughout history? What ghostly misdemeanour saw one servant forced to wear a sackcloth to church for a year?Having said this, Frederick the Great was, simultaneously, an extremely aggressive military leader who transformed Prussia from a small backwater state into a major European power house.Domestically, Frederick's Enlightenment influence was more evident. He reformed the military and government, established religious tolerance and granted a basic form of freedom of the press. He bolstered the legal system and established the first German code of law.⁶
5. Voltaire (1694–1778)
During his life Voltaire was a superstar of the Enlightenment. He was famous for his wit as well as his attacks on the Church and advocacy of freedom of religion, expression and the separation of Church and State. He was a brilliant writer and produced works in just about every genre,including a very early science fiction story called Micromegas, in which ambassadors arrived from another planet to witness the folly of mankind.This was enough to make him a marked man in France and he spent much of his time abroad, especially in England, where he found an environment which positively embraced free thinking. He also attracted the attention of Frederick the Great who offered protection and a regular income – although they did fall out later in life.Voltaire believed above all in the efficacy of reason. He believed social progress could be achieved through reason and that no authority—religious or political or otherwise—should be immune to challenge by reason. He emphasized in his work the importance of tolerance, especially religious tolerance.
6. Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
Benjamin Franklin was a prolific American thinker, writer, inventor and founding father who constantly sailed back and forth between the American colonies and the Old World. He was inspired by the ideals of the European Enlightenment and helped transport these ideas and concepts over to the New World.He played an integral part in forming the new government of the United States of America and had a major hand in writing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that would form the bedrock of the newly-formed nation.Franklin subscribed to deism, an Enlightenment-era belief in a God who created but has no continuing involvement in the world and the events within it. Deists also advanced the belief that personal morality—an individual's moral compass, leading to good works and actions—is more important than strict church doctrines.
7. Denis Diderot (1713–1784)
Diderot’s status as either a predecessor of developments in the sciences, or a kind of “scientific theorist” is also strongly affected by his brilliant works of experimental philosophical prose.Some of these read like novels, some like philosophical dialogues, and some are just unclassifiable.They include the Letter on the Blind and the Letter on the Deaf and Mute (late 1740s-early 1750s); Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature (1753); and D’Alembert’s Dream (1769).The Letter on the Blind takes the pretext of an actual blind mathematician to investigate Molyneux’s Problem (if a person born blind, with an understanding of basic mathematics, recovered her sight and saw a cube, would she instantly know what it was?), and has been called a “turning point in Western attitudes to disability”.Diderot became famous for writing one of the most important documents of the Enlightenment – the Encyclopedie, which was intended to pull together as much knowledge across all subjects and genres as possible. He was a prolific writer, although many of his works went unpublished until his death.Diderot was an original “scientific theorist” of the Enlightenment, who connected the newest scientific trends to radical philosophical ideas such as materialism. He was especially interested in the life sciences and their impact on our traditional ideas of what a person – or humanity itself – are.⁷
8. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)
A radical thinker who believed in unshackling people from the confines of society, his polemic work entitled The Social Contract envisaged a world of direct democracy in which all citizens could have direct influence on the running of the state.Professor of Modern History David Andress talks Dan through the French Revolution: the causes, the context, its significance and its wide-felt consequences.His work would inspire the leaders of the French Revolution, who used Rousseau as the philosophical backbone of the new republic. Sadly the revolution and republic born out of it turned out to be somewhat more brutal and ugly than Rousseau would have envisioned. Rousseau was the least academic of modern philosophers and in many ways was the most influential. His thought marked the end of the European Enlightenment (the “Age of Reason”). He propelled political and ethical thinking into new channels. His reforms revolutionized taste, first in music, then in the other arts. He had a profound impact on people’s way of life; he taught parents to take a new interest in their children and to educate them differently; he furthered the expression of emotion rather than polite restraint in friendship and love. He introduced the cult of religious sentiment among people who had discarded religious dogma. He opened people’s eyes to the beauties of nature, and he made liberty an object of almost universal aspiration.
9. Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
The English-born writer and philosopher Thomas Paine became one of the founding fathers of the American Revolution. His pamphlet, Common Sense, published in 1776, encouraged American colonists to rise up against the English. It became hugely popular within the colonies, and those who were inspired by Paine’s writing soon followed his advice and challenged English authority.Paine was also enthralled by the French Revolution. In his major work, The Rights of Man, he railed against absolutist monarchy. He was granted honorary French citizenship and had a role in the National Convention. He voted for the Republic, but did not agree that the execution of Louis XVI was neccessary.Although by most standard Paine's life and political work were largely unsuccessful, he embodies Enlightenment ideals of the advancement of science, individual liberty, and free thinking in religion and liberal social reform.The ideas of the Enlightenment spread to the American colonies, profoundly influencing leaders of the Revolution to create a new structure of government. Enlightenment, as defined in Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, can be broadly defined is the movement towards reason and individualism rather than tradition. The text, by Thomas Paine, challenged the principles of liberty, equality, and justice. Thomas Paine was a revolutionary thinker who used Enlightenment ideology as a platform to persuade towards the founding of an independant America, and towards the founding of the Declaration of Independence.
10. David Hume (1711-1776)
One of the best known philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment, Hume was sceptical on a range of philosophical subjects. He attacked several theories supposedly explaining the existence of God, such as the Teleological Argument, otherwise known as the “argument from design”. His determination of morality was the immediate forerunner to the classic utilitarian views of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.His moral outlook was much more conservative than subsequent political radicals. He believed, for instance, that the British governments would function best through the existence of a strong and influential monarchy.Hume was to become known as one of the important figures of the Enlightenment. Among his contributions was his recognition of the difference between matters of fact and matters of value. Moral judgments, he held, were matters of value because they were about sentiments and passions.⁸
11.Immanuel Kant(1724-1804)
Kant was a German philosopher who became a vital part of modern philosophy. The first part of this essay will look at Kant’s Critique of pure reason and how Kant contributed to our understanding of the nature of knowledge, it will also look at a Kantian explanation of how we gain knowledge and how that shapes our perception of the world and our experiences. It also aims to look at the relationship between knowledge and human rationality. The second section of this essay aims to look at the Kantian view of moral judgement and how it shapes our perceptions of what is just. This section will especially focus on ethics, free will and the categorical imperative. It will be followed by counter arguments from different philosophers and general criticism on Kant’s philosophy of ethics. This paper will then proceed to look at Kant’s view on individual rights and the role of the state in ensuring the rights for all. The part that follows will examine Kant’s contribution to the social contract theory. The last part of this paper will look at Kant’s perpetual peace and his views of international relations.In An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? (1784), Kant wrote that Enlightenment was about people thinking freely for themselves - rather than relying on authorities.⁹ Although Kant believe in free speech, he was not a democrat.