Enlightenment

The age of Enlightenment was a time of great social, political, and philosophical revolution that coincided with the Scientific Revolution - which saw scientists begin to take more systematic and methodological approaches to science. Likewise, the Enlightenment was a period in which thinkers took it upon themselves to reason about the world and discover its mysteries as opposed to merely following the teachings of others. Markedly, the Enlightenment saw a shift away from the religious philosophy and strict adherence to Catholic doctrine that dominated the field in the Medieval Ages, and a shift towards using one’s own reason more critically. The Enlightenment had great development in fields such as rationalism (more emphasis on reason as a way to discover truth), skepticism (i.e. no more blind faith, now we can question the way the world is), political theory (the newfound reason played a large role in examining how the then-current political structures worked, and how they should be reformed), and interestingly enough empiricism. Great progress was made in defense of empiricism (the belief that all/most knowledge must come through experience); though, why is this so if reason, and not sensory perception, was championed? It was because the driving factor behind the Enlightenment was the praise of the faculties and freedom of reason as opposed to dogmatic faith, not the belief that pure reason was the solution to, say, epistemological problems. So, between rationalism and empiricism and anything in between, the faculties of reason allowed these beliefs to rapidly evolve. Essentially, this was the primary feature of the Enlightenment: the realization that we are able to think and freely use our reason - whether it was used to reach empiricism, utilitarianism, a new view of human nature, etc. - and this was demonstrated in the ‘motto’ of this time period: “Dare to think!”