scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Topic

Enlightenment

About: Enlightenment is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6845 publications have been published within this topic receiving 116832 citations.


Papers
More filters
Book
01 Mar 2013
TL;DR: Sowerby as mentioned in this paper revisited the repealers' history and revealed that the Glorious revolution was not primarily a crisis provoked by political repression, but a conservative counter-revolution against the movement for enlightened reform that James himself encouraged and sustained.
Abstract: In the reign of James II, minority groups from across the religious spectrum, led by the Quaker William Penn, rallied together under the Catholic King James in an effort to bring religious toleration to England Known as repealers, these reformers aimed to convince Parliament to repeal laws that penalized worshippers who failed to conform to the doctrines of the Church of England Although the movement was destroyed by the Glorious Revolution, it profoundly influenced the post-revolutionary settlement, helping to develop the ideals of tolerance that would define the European Enlightenment Based on a rich array of newly discovered archival sources, Scott Sowerby's groundbreaking history rescues the repealers from undeserved obscurity, telling the forgotten story of men and women who stood up for their beliefs at a formative moment in British history By restoring the repealer movement to its rightful prominence, Making Toleration also overturns traditional interpretations of King James II's reign and the origins of the Glorious Revolution Though often depicted as a despot who sought to impose his own Catholic faith on a Protestant people, James is revealed as a man ahead of his time, a king who pressed for religious toleration at the expense of his throne The Glorious Revolution, Sowerby finds, was not primarily a crisis provoked by political repression It was, in fact, a conservative counter-revolution against the movement for enlightened reform that James himself encouraged and sustained

30 citations

Book
09 Jul 2013
TL;DR: The Scottish Enlightenment was the first intellectual movement to view commercial society as a distinct and distinctive social formation - one that still shapes our everyday lives Christopher Berry explains why Enlightenment thinkers considered commercial society to be wealthier and freer than earlier forms, and charts the arguments Scottish philosophers put forward for and against the idea as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: This is the first exposition of how Enlightenment thinkers viewed this idea that shapes the world today The Scottish Enlightenment was the first intellectual movement to view commercial society as a distinct and distinctive social formation - one that still shapes our everyday lives Christopher Berry explains why Enlightenment thinkers considered commercial society to be wealthier and freer than earlier forms, and charts the arguments Scottish philosophers put forward for and against the idea This is the first book to focus on the Scottish Enlightenment's conception of commercial society, revealing it to be the movement's core idea It analyses key works like Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, David Hume's Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects and Adam Ferguson's Essay on the History of Civil Society It looks at lesser-known works such as Robert Wallace's Dissertation on Numbers of Mankind

29 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper pointed out the dangers of taking Jonathan Israel's volumes on the Enlightenment as a new framework for Enlightenment studies, and suggested more effective ways to make a truly historicized Enlightenment present for us now, especially by devoting more attention to the literary and rhetorical properties of Enlightenment texts.
Abstract: This review points out the dangers of taking Jonathan Israel's volumes on the Enlightenment as a new framework for Enlightenment studies. Despite Israel's claim in Enlightenment contested to have historicized our understanding of the Enlightenment, his modus operandi is fundamentally unhistorical, and the result is a presentist interpretation with an oversimplified classification of thinkers into ‘radical’ and ‘moderate’ camps. The review suggests more effective ways to make a truly historicized Enlightenment present for us now, especially by devoting more attention to the literary and rhetorical properties of Enlightenment texts.

29 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Oct 2000
TL;DR: The fundamental principles of the Enlightenment were rational criticism and scientific naturalism as mentioned in this paper, which had dominated intellectual life in Germany since the middle of the eighteenth century, and the Enlightenment began to show signs of a crisis.
Abstract: Introduction It is a commonplace of intellectual history that any philosophical movement must be understood in its historical context. This dictum is especially true of German Idealism, whose aims and problems become intelligible only in the context of the culture of late eighteenth-century Germany. This culture was essentially that of the Enlightenment or Aufklarung , which had dominated intellectual life in Germany since the middle of the eighteenth century. Toward the close of the eighteenth century, the Enlightenment began to show signs of a crisis. The more it extended its fundamental principles, the more they seemed to lead to dire consequences. The fundamental principles of the Enlightenment were rational criticism and scientific naturalism. While criticism seemed to end in skepticism, naturalism appeared to result in materialism. Both results were unacceptable. If skepticism undermines our common-sense beliefs in the reality of the external world, other minds, and even our own selves, materialism threatens the beliefs in freedom, immortality, and the sui generis status of the mind. There were few Aufklarer in Germany ready to admit such disastrous consequences; but there were also few willing to limit the principles of criticism and naturalism.

29 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 1952-Osiris
TL;DR: This article reviewed the contributions of English and French empiricists and enlighteners to our knowledge of American Indians, from BACON to CONDORCET, and found that the most important thinkers with whom we must deal with are the following: i) Lord Bacon, the statesman for Queen ELIZABETH and King JAMES as well as the admirer and exponent of experimental sciences; 2) HOBBES, a supporter of absolutism as developed from the theory of the original social contract; 3) LOCKE, a defender of the supposedly
Abstract: The " Noble Savage," a representative figure in English and French literature of the eighteenth century, was destined later to become the object of careful scientific investigation (i). How the " savage " fares at the hands of the English and French novelists is certainly worthy of serious investigation. The purpose of this paper, however, is to review the contributions of English and French empiricists and enlighteners-from BACON to CONDORCET-to our knowledge of American Indians. Characteristic of the thought within this group was the belief in: i) the non-existence of a providence, which exerts an influence upon man and the world: 2) man's ethical and intellectual capacities, and 3) the natural right of man. The most important thinkers with whom we must deal are the following: i) Lord BACON, the statesman for Queen ELIZABETH and King JAMES as well as the admirer and exponent of experimental sciences; 2) HOBBES, a supporter of absolutism as developed from the theory of the original social contract; 3) LOCKE, a defender of the supposedly inalienable rights of the individual based upon the same theory but used differently than by HOBBES; 4) HUME, an epistemologist, who dealt with the basis, methods, limits and validity of knowledge; 5) MONTESQUIEU, an historically-minded, moderate critic of French and admirer of English state and social structure; 6) VOLTAIRE, a writer in many theoretical and practical fields, but primarily a struggler for what he considered " tolerance "

29 citations


Network Information
Related Topics (5)
Ideology
54.2K papers, 1.1M citations
89% related
China
84.3K papers, 983.5K citations
80% related
Politics
263.7K papers, 5.3M citations
79% related
Happiness
22K papers, 728.4K citations
78% related
Government
141K papers, 1.9M citations
77% related
Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20241
2023965
20222,158
202181
2020179
2019214