HISTORY of western civilization - Essay Example

There were activists, propagandists and scientists in the Enlighteners who wanted to understand the world in a new insight and change it. The Enlightenment had its impact in France, Britain, Germany, Spain, Portugal, America, Italy and the Netherlands and resulted in great historical developments like the establishment of the United States of America and French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The Enlightenment was not a single movement nor was it carried out by a unified group of individuals.

Instead, it happened piecemeal and to have a clear idea of its impact on human life, one has to assess the history from the second half of seventeenth century to the beginning of eighteenth century. The beginning of Enlightenment is visible in the thinking of Francis Bacon who lived during the Renaissance period as he strongly supported pragmatic thought which was the basis of enlightenment. There was Benjamin Franklin who was an efficient statesman, scientist and political philosopher. He made two crucial scientific inventions; bifocal spectacles and lightning conductors as a scientist and also played a crucial role in the development of the new American Republic (Porter, 3).

Another eminent Enlightener was the French philosopher and writer Denis Diderot who is famous as the editor of Encyclopedie. Giving up Roman Catholicism, he started philosophical materialism. Yet another prominent figure was Condorcet who argued that social ills take place not due to human nature, but due to ignorance and mistake. Another very important Enlightener is Voltaire who fought against the religious dogma of the time and vehemently supported social reform. Some others who had their role in this great revolution are Thomas Hobbes, Spinoza, Kant and Hegel.

Montesquieu, d’Alembert, Turgot, the Britons, Locke, Hume and Gibbon, The Genevan, Rousseau, d’Holbach and Herder too were prominent influences in the movement. In the simplest possible terms, the aim of Enlightenment thinkers was to fight ignorance, superstition and despotism for the creation of a better world. As it was in eighteenth century, the main culprits that suppressed the free thinking of man, according to Enlighteners, were the Catholic Church and the hereditary aristocracy that existed all over Europe.

An understanding of the social situation prevailed in Europe will show how urgent a social change was for them. The 17th century Europe was totally restless by wars in the name of religion and also in the name of imperial invasion. Both the church and the state were hand in hand in torturing people in the name of religion and state. Even the scriptures were twisted and used for the advantages of the church and the state. Those who tried anything against the state or religion were imprisoned or executed.

From the above, it is clear that Enlightenment was the need of the time, which freed human mind from the dogmas of religion, which insisted that logic is the way to truth. Instead, Enlighteners claimed that logic should be accompanied by reason, and that experience and experiment are the way to real truth. It is seen that Enlighteners were mainly against the dogmatism and irrationality present in Christianity. Enlightenment thinkers aimed mainly at the religion as it was the Catholic Church that chained the brain of people from thinking rationally.

One of the earliest critics was Thomas Hobbes.