Enlightenment

An Evolving Society: Does the Enlightenment Period Affect Our Thinking Now? Your Name Subject and Section Professor’s Name Date Introduction The Enlightenment, a radical overhaul from the 17th to the 18th century, has become an emblem of intellectual inquiry and Enlightenment. Their main principles are rationalism and the practice of critical thinking about knowledge. In this epoch, the pursuit of reason was genuine, the dominant principle guiding people's thoughts about nature, society, and humans. The Enlightenment thinkers seized the momentum caused by scientific innovation and philosophical debate to emancipate human minds from the bonds of dogma and superstition. The central figures such as Descartes, Locke, and Voltaire carried the standard of reason and observation that helped human power of insight to create a more progressive society and eventually free humanity from superstitions and suppression of the state's power. Consequently, the reasons humanity was brought into the Great Awakening may echo the resounding awakening call for the winning of human reason as the judge of truth and development. Nevertheless, the Enlightenment's glorification of reasoned thinking only happened after being challenged. In the 19th century, thinkers of the Romantic and Irrational epochs brought a flood of criticisms opposed to the rationalist frame of the Enlightenment. The romanticists, for instance, John Jacques Rousseau and William Wordsworth, have turned against the notions of Enlightenment by looking at the universe as the world of machines and instead bringing up the importance of emotions, intuition, and the sublime practically in the human experience. Moreover, Irrational philosophers such as Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche questioned the unquestioned trust in reason as the absolute truth and the only way of knowledge by the Enlightenment; therefore, they highlighted the limited ability of reason and the complexities of human interactions, which elude rational understanding. In today's establishment of the 21st century, contemporary evaluations of the Enlightenment tradition have undergone modifications that still bear the influence of the 19th-century critique. The continuous scrutiny of the Enlightenment's optimism in rationalism has been raised from the Romantics to the Irrationals. Through a study of the criticisms made by intellectual currents that appeared in the 19th century, such as Romanticism and Irrationalism, against Enlightenment's Rationalism and the adaptations made in contemporary society, one can understand that the Enlightenment tradition still has a vital role in society and politics. However, in some respects, it differs from how its original thinkers intended. The Rationalism Employed During the Enlightenment Period and Its Critiques Enlightenment represents a significant breakthrough in intellectual thought, which turned out to be a new, rational, and empirical skepticism oriented toward overthrowing the authority of ages past. This new philosophy was embodied by men like Rene Descartes, who promoted a method of doubt to put established truths into question through constant critical scrutiny radically. Continuing on the theme, the first sentence of Descartes, "Cogito ergo Sum," symbolizes the main task of the intellect as a vital instrument for a given person to clarify his life and existence. Similarly, basing his empiricism on sensation pretext, John Locke rejected innate thoughts and upheld the concept of knowledge as a product of sensory impressions. The main idea in Locke's philosophy is the empirical evidence on which he based his conclusions and his conviction that any belief without substantive support from either tradition or an authority figure should be rejected. Reason was also a means of Enlightenment for intellectuals like Voltaire. They used it to set people free. Voltaire was a critic of religious dogma and political oppression. He was also the most outspoken defender of tolerance and freedom in all intellectual pursuits. The vastness of his literary works, including pamphlets, plays, and letters, demonstrated his undying search for truth and logic in questioning traditional ideologies. He was among the first to call for the inclusion of individuals in collective thinking by guaranteeing their freedom to think and speak. On the other hand, the Enlightenment's wor...