The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement in the Western world

Hobbes thought of himself as a scientist. He wanted to make a scientific model of politics like the model of the Universe created by the Italian astronomer Galileo. Galileo treated the planets as if they were like earthly bodies. He thought about their movement as being governed by the same laws that govern the physical objects we can handle. Galileo's theories started from simple axioms, or basic statements, about the laws governing matter. One of these laws is what we now call the law of inertia, that a body continues its motion in a straight line until something intervenes to stop it. Hobbes looked for similar axioms, or basic premises, on which to found a science of society. The objects of Hobbes' universe are human individuals. He pictured people as streams of impressions and selfish desires, forever in motion. We seek the temporary satisfaction of one desire, and then rush on to satisfy the next. At one moment we link to other individuals for the temporary satisfaction of desire, at another we collide because the other human has become an obstacle to our satisfaction (Hobbes 1651).

Baruch Spinoza was another Jewish Philosopher who also applied news sciences to morals and philosophy. Spinoza is known for his famous work called “Ethics”, which was summarized by Francis Bacon and conceived by Rene Descartes that begin with the basic definition of good according to humankind. Humans believe they have reached the highest level of excellent based on their good works, but according to Spinoza, the highest good of the mind is the understanding of GOD and the highest level of good worth is to know GOD. He also believed that there is only one universe and one GOD, and everything else that exist in the world only a component of GOD. Spinoza had similar beliefs like Thomas Hobbes who believed that humans were also mechanical beings.

Like Hobbes, Spinoza believed that human action was fundamentally mechanistic. Human actions resulted from two things: the external environment and internal passions. The relationship between the environment, passions, and human action was a mechanistic relationship; all human actions, then, could be explained in terms of laws. The fundamental drive that animates all human beings is the effort to preserve themselves and their own autonomy in relation to external things. However, the one area of human activity that is free from the influence of the external environment and human passions is rational thought; the more that thought is disengaged from the external world and human passion, that is, the more abstract that thought is, the more free the individual. Human freedom, for Spinoza, existed only in abstract thinking (Hooker, 1996).

Like Hobbes, Spinoza believes that human destruction is a result of their actions and that common right should be enforced through dominion to managed the humanity. Basically, a ruler has to be appointed to create the laws of the land that humans must abide by which is the “common right”. If humans were responsible for creating their own rules and regulations, it would lead to totally chaos. Spinoza believes that the more power individuals possess, the less control authorities have, and the more power authorities gain, the less authority individuals will acquire. Spinoza implies that democracy is the best way to balance individual and common right since it more closely guarantees that the beliefs of the multitude will correspond with the beliefs and actions of the dominion (Hooker, 1996).

John Locke was another philosopher who was heavily into the material sciences.  He researched material from Francis Bacon, Isaac, Pascal and Descartes passionately.  Locke focused on human cognition, which explained how the human mind works and functions.

The human mind enters the world with no pre-formed ideas whatsoever. The human mind at birth is a blank, a tabula rasa (erased board). Human sensation: taste, touch, smell, hearing, and especially vision filled the empty mind with objects of sensation. From these sensations, humans eventually derive a sense of order and rationality. All human thought, then, and all human passion are ultimately derived from sensation and sensation alone. In Locke's view, the human mind is completely empirical. Not only is he arguing that the best knowledge is empirical knowledge, he was arguing that the only knowledge is empirical knowledge; there is no other kind (Hooker 1996). Locke believed that humans are born into the world as innocent beings.

 

They have no concept of right and wrong; their minds are basically blank.  Human actions derive from their environment; they are taught how to act and behave in the world from their experimental experiences. Locke believed that everyone was born in the world with the same capabilities, meaning that no one had greater morals or values than the other. He thought that humans were responsible for changing the world by creating better morals and values to improve the human race.  He also stressed that education was the key to good morals and intellect.  It was essential that people received quality education to contribute their share to the improvement of the world. Locke had a different concept of the law, than Hobbes, he believed in the natural law, which stated that all human are equal regardless of his or her surrounding or environment.  On the other hand, Hobbes believed that humans were a product of their environment. Locked argued that their was no such thing as inequality; every human being was born with the same capabilities and opportunities.

Human beings have a natural inclination to preserve their equality and independence, since these are natural aspects of humanness. For Locke, humans enter into social contracts only to help adjudicate disputes between individuals or groups. Absolute power, then, is an unnatural development in human history (Hooker, 1996).

Locke believed that social contracts were developed to protect equal opportunity and sovereignty of humans.

Imamnuel Kant was another influential and powerful philosopher who educated individuals on how to bring enlightenment to the general community.  Kant explains that, “enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage” (Kant 85).  In other words, fortification is an individual’s lack of ability to have direction for one’s self. Kant believed that if humans released themselves from safety or shelter, they should have the liberty to utilize freedom any way they desired. Kant argued that an individual could attempt to rebel, but will only fail and result in a continual cycle of tutelage. One prince said that the coming about of enlightenment will only arrive if you, “Argue as much as you will, and about what you will, but obey!” (Kant 87). Individuals can argue and debate; but they are not allowed to rebel.

Kant states, “the public use of one’s reason must always be free, and it alone can bring about enlightenment among men, but the private use of reason may often be very narrowly restricted without particularly hindering the progress of enlightenment. For example, Kant explains that people are obligated to pay taxes as his or her private use of reckoning;

but an individual can complain about overpaying taxes as a public use of reasoning. Kant explains that if an issue is contradictory to an individual, then it is impossible to fulfill the private and public use of reasoning.

Kant says, “As things now stand, much is lacking which prevents men form being, or easily becoming, capable of correctly using their own reason in religious matters with assurance and free from outside direction. But, on the other hand, we have clear indications that the field has now been opened wherein men may freely deal with these things and that the obstacles to general enlightenment or the release from self-imposed tutelage are gradually being reduced” (Kant 90).  

Kant believed that people were able to manage and control their lives without an appointed instructor ruler, or supervisor who dictates one’s life. He felt that humans should only use their superiors for advise and guidance. Humans were used to depending on a ruler or a leader to give them instructions about the way of life instead of looking within themselves and creating their own rules of reasoning to eventually achieve true competence, which resulted in a world of constant enlightenment.

The philosophers on the enlightenment questioned the principles and rules of the society in which they lived.  They wanted to know why certain precepts existed and how they could create their own guidelines from the foundation of other enlightenment philosophers to create a better world for humankind.

Leaders of the Enlightenment were united in their desire to reform thought, society, and government for the sake of human liberty. Gay has said of the overall philosophy of proponents of the Enlightenment that their goals included, "freedom from arbitrary power, freedom of speech, freedom of trade, freedom to realize one's talents, freedom of aesthetic response, freedom, in a word, of moral man to make his way in the world." These goals, however, were based on a "scientific" understanding of the world.

The leaders of the enlightenment had different feelings and thoughts about how the government should operate; as a result, the enlightenment was very disorganized and dogmatic.

Most historians have accepted for several years now that the Enlightenment, once popularly characterized as the Age of Reason, came in two versions, the radical and the skeptical. The former is now generally identified with France, the latter with Scotland. It has also been acknowledged that die anti-clericalism that obsessed the French philosophes was not reciprocated in Britain or America. Indeed, in both these countries many Enlightenment concepts—human rights, liberty, equality, tolerance, science, and progress—complemented rather than opposed church thinking (Windschuttle 2005).

Although the enlightenment was viewed as a period of time where philosophers and leaders develop concepts and principles to prevent humans from self-destruction, people became skeptical about what to believe and they debated over absolute truth. The enlightenment started with the British, French, America, and eventually became worldwide. There were several leaders preaching and teaching about virtue, morals, good works, faith; some philosophers had the same beliefs and concepts; but each of them had a different approach to make the word a better place.  They all intended to explain human nature and how humans can overcome obstacles and circumstances in order to receive certain outcomes.  Some philosophers believed that humans were capable of correcting their own mistakes and creating their own standards, morals and rule to follow. On the other hand, humans need self-direction in order to prevent self- destruction; they tend to seek the instructions from philosophers or leaders in order to determine their true purpose and meaning in life. The enlightenment created a period of confusion because there were too many doctrines about reasoning, education and religions, which resulted in skepticism among the human race.

Skepticism was seen as a set of arguments or an attitude, challenging knowledge claims of philosophers, theologians, and scientists, ancient and modern. It was also seen as both a defense and a potential or real enemy of religion. From Descartes onward leading philosophers spent a good deal of their intellectual time and their systems developing answers to skepticism, which was at least as live an adversary position as Scholasticism (Popkin 1992).  

     

Although some philosophers believed that the period of the enlightenment was for all human kind; French philosophers assumed that the enlightenment was designated for the upper class only and the lower class citizens were to ignorant or incompetence to inform themselves about liberty, equality and human rights.  

The French philosophes thought the social classes were divided by the chasm of poverty and, more crucially, of superstition and ignorance. They despised the lower orders because they were in thrall to Christianity (Windschuttle 2005).

On the other hand, philosophers such as Edmund Burke and John Wesley introduced Christianity to address the true meaning and purpose in life.  If humans do not understand and seek their existence in life, they become mentally, spiritually, physically and emotionally ill. Christianity was not just a religion, it was a way of life. Unlike other European philosophers, Burke and Wesley catered to the sick, the poor, the disabled, prisoners, African-Americans, and other neglected individuals.  They were more like Jesus, not only speakers of the truth, but actually doers.   Wesleyanism took the period of Enlightenment to a new level. The Methodist started giving to the poor, donating clothes, providing food and shelter for the needy, in other words they became the good Samaritans of the world. As a result, Wesleyanism became one of the most influential and spiritual movements in the world; they even reached the Evangelical church in England and heavily influenced the middle and upper class to join in the true enlightenment of Christianity.  

"Man is by constitution a religious animal," Edmund Burke famously wrote in his Reflections on the Revolution in France. For Burke, religion itself—religious dissent in particular—was the very basis of liberty. The Wesleyans went one step further and also made it the basis of social reform. John Wesley's great mission was intended to be not only the spiritual salvation of the poor but also their intellectual and moral edification. There was no conflict between reason and religion. "It is a fundamental principle with us," Wesley argued, "that to renounce reason is to renounce religion, that religion and reason go hand in hand, and that all irrational religion is false religion." It was only by "religion and reason joined" that "passion and prejudice” and "wickedness and bigotry" could be overcome. John Wesley's great mission was intended to be not only the spiritual salvation of the poor but also their intellectual and moral edification. There was no conflict between reason and religion. "It is a fundamental principle with us," Wesley argued, "that to renounce reason is to renounce religion, that religion and reason go hand in hand, and that all irrational religion is false religion." It was only by "religion and reason joined" that "passion and prejudice" and "wickedness and bigotry" could be overcome. In pursuit of their mission, the Methodists produced a huge volume of literature not just on Christianity but on grammar, medicine, electricity, natural history, Shakespeare, Milton, Spenser, Locke, and other classics. Himmelfarb observes: "The whole of this quite extraordinary publication industry, comprising books, pamphlets, and tracts on a variety of subjects and directed to different levels of literacy and interest, constituted something like an Enlightenment for the common man"(Windschuttle 2005).

The enlightenment was a period of the Great Awakening.  People were conformed to doing things their way, which was basically the survival of the fittest.  Everyman desired the best for themselves and neglected others. Europeans thought they were the elite the Enlightenment; in other the words they believed that they were the only class of people who possessed the ability to become enlightened.

The Enlightenment was accompanied by the evolution of art through the baroque to the rococo, and finally to the classical style. Art mirrored Enlightenment thought in its steady evolution away from religious themes, and in its attitude toward its subject matter. As art was evolving, so was daily life and culture for many Europeans. The growth of the middle class was the most notable development in eighteenth century Europe, and greater personal prosperity gave way to new luxuries and habits among the educated and well to do. However, the majority of Europeans remained impoverished, tied to their land, and unable to participate in the Enlightenment in any significant form.

The Enlightenment transformed itself due to the help of John Wesley and Edmund Burke. They showed the world that the Enlightenment was for every one of all races, origins, and backgrounds.  They also proved that God had no respect of person through Christianity; everyone was treated the same regardless of their condition or state of mind. Because of the great philosophers and historians of the past, today we have adopted some of the same precepts and standards towards religion. We continue to fight for individual rights such as: the freedom of speech, freedom of economical and social equality, freedom of expression and publication.  Although skepticism will always exist, true enlightenment is shown through action, not just words. Individuals must realize that in order to survive in this world, it is everyone’s reasonable service to help others in need. Although there were several leaders and philosophers of the Enlightenment, they all had one common purpose, which was to alert humankind to look beyond their selfish desires and wants and focus on the needs of neglected individuals.

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