The Age of Enlightment - Essay Example

The history reveals that Britain remained the most flourishing point for the movement as provided with new, energetic and leading views at that time. The independence, susceptibility to change and flexibility of Britain helped in the development of this movement from a small struggle to a more powerful and unite movement of great thinkers of that era. The key enlightenment figures, which Porter discusses about the most, are Locke, Newton and Hume. The other leading figures which influenced the thoughts and perceptions of people of their times involved Kant, Hobbes, Arouet, Rosseau, Wollstonecraft and so on.

The goal of the Enlightenment thinkers was to help people in developing the ideas which were reasonable and logical although new and completely different from the older ones. Their aim was to change the human beings’ current state in order to make the world a better place for whole of the humanity rather than certain groups. They believed more in reason than in beliefs and concepts which were adopted from predecessors or current society. They emphasized on reasoning and rejected the older norms of superstition and emotional thoughts.

They proposed intellectual understanding and concept of modern sciences to expose certain realities about life, world and nature. They proposed to sue science and logical modern ideas to solve issues and influence the nature. They offered to increase human wealth using scientifically rich ideas but not to compromise humanity for the sake of increasing wealth and gaining power. They emphasized on the goodness of men rather than superstitious ideas about the bad instincts. The Enlightenment thinkers emphasized, greatly on the power of individuals.

They developed and strengthened the concept of individuality as a way out to their limited life circle. They provided with a concept of a person as a powerful figure of society rather than groups relying on each other without any personal opinion or efforts placed in order to change their present and future life. The emphasized on public discussions and called for actions which were strong as per the reasons supporting them. The Enlightenment thinkers were greatly opposed and criticized for years.

Their philosophies and ideas were opposed by romantics of the era as they felt that their ideas were against humanity or moral values of unity. Another distinct feature of the Enlightenment thinkers was their views on religion. Their concept of God was different in a fashion that He created a masterpiece in the shape of the universe but they do not believe in any further changes or miracles from Him anymore. According to their view, God has created the world and left it on us to understand it, make changes for the rest of the time we stay here.

There are many veiled secrets in the universe which human beings are created to find out and make this world a better place for their lives. Their religious views diverted towards finding the reasons behind everything in the world. Their faith lies in the fact that everything in this world is created for a reason and human being can discover those reasons by struggles and new ideas. Their belief is that human beings can find out ways to understand the nature and change the course of humanity by continuous struggle, careful assessment and an enthusiasm for a change.

Newton’s strive led to the discovery of Laws of physics and the