Enlightenment and Modernity - Essay Example

Enlightenment and Modernity Enlightenment was a period of an expansive cultural, philosophical, intellectual, and social movement that spread through Germany, France, England, and other parts of Europe during the 16th century. This was due to Scientific Revolution that started in the outset of 1500. Scientific Revolution opened people’s mind to think independently and thereby expanding the fields of astronomy, physics, philosophy, mathematics, medicine, and economics (Zack, 2010:157). Intellectuals emerged and new knowledge permeated every facet of educated life. The Enlightenment period welcomed Industrial Revolution. This created jobs for the rural and educated dwellers. The advancements of Enlightenment transformed the European nations into more intelligent and self-aware civilization. The thinkers and writers believed that they were more enlightened than their fellow citizens were and therefore took the initiative to educate them. They held that through reasoning people could build a better world. People could solve problems through rational thought and experimentation. This was because a reasonable person could eradicate ignorance, superstition, and autocracy (Beales, 2005:81). People increased their reading habits because of availability of books from the publishing firms. This paper will endeavour to establish the role that publishers and readers played in the dissemination of enlightenment thought. The principles of enlightenment spread throughout Europe and America mainly through reading and writings. Debating societies, coffeehouses, salons, and literary circles came into being all over Europe. People interacted through studying and discussing wide rage of topics. The inquiry of knowledge led to emergence of big academies such as the Royal Society of London and Academy of Sciences in Paris. The academy concentrated on sciences such as biology, anatomy, botany, and astronomy. The academies gave little consideration on religious and spiritual studies. In Germany, only aristocracy and bourgeoisie studied in the academies. Conversely, French academies allowed all the citizens to participate in learning regardless of religious beliefs, social classes, and gender (Beales, 2005:83). Great writers, readers, and publishers came up to disseminate information on enlightenment thoughts. Authors passed their ideas to the readers in form of plays, essays, newspapers, journals, pamphlets, and books. Many people craved for knowledge and wanted free access to the literary works of the intellectuals who spearheaded enlightenment. Public libraries remained accessible to all people due to increasing demand to fight illiteracy. People could participate in society of Enlightenment. The publishers and readers were very active in dissemination of the writings of the scholars such as Baron de Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The availability of publication machines in Europe was an indispensable tool for quick dissemination of enlightenment thoughts. The expansion of large printing machines generated journals, reviews, letters ensuring faster transmission of information and images in coffee rooms, salons, lodgings, scientific societies, provincial academies, and debating clubs (Brewer, 2006:10). With this information in their midst, people could read for themselves, interrogate, and chat the way forward to achieve the benefits of Enlightenment. Intellectual people imparted new knowledge to the masses thus decolonising their primitive and backward thoughts. The vast information in form of printed materials expanded the comprehension base of the readers. The intellectuals criticised the church for misleading the people. The views in the print materials acted as guiding principles for creation of strong nations that embraced reasoning. Continued reading and publication of enlightenment materials brought significant changes in Europe. People could challenge the church and monarchies. Intellectuals viewed the church as an impediment to the forward march of human reasoning. This explains why many intellectuals believed in Deism. Deism is the refusal to follow more organised and doctrinal religion. Deists opt for a more private and spiritual kind of faith (Brown & Timothy, 2006:284). In addition, the intellectuals questioned the ruling class, customs, and morals. Enlightenment period was a celebration of ideas. The reading and publication revealed what the capabilities of human minds that would accomplish through conscious action. Many of these enlightenment thoughts had political undertones. The readers started to realise that freedom and democracy were basic rights to all people. People dispelled the belief that popes and monarchies were the custodians of freedom. The ideals that intellectuals presented made a promise of equal treatment of people regardless of their background. Citizens changed their perception of their leaders and could see themselves in the same line with authority. The intellectual ideas empowered the citizens to criticise authority in cases of shortcomings. Citizens could now elect their leaders based on their past performance (Brown & Timothy, 2006:289). They could combine rationality to vote in the best representatives. The ideas of collective, national intelligence encouraged people to believe that all the hurdles of life could get a lasting solution. Many citizens could discuss and debate openly on matters of public interest. Interaction could not have been possible before development of the culture of reading that enabled citizens to discover their rights. The intellectual ideas augmented decision-making process. The readers could incorporate scientific methods to come up with sound policies to development. The methods embraced consultations and accommodation of diversified views to attain a converging point that suits everyone. The readers and intellectuals could weigh people’s views based on reasoning to ascertain their viability (Brown & Timothy, 2006:300). The availability of printed literature allowed many citizens to enrich their literacy levels. People assembled in the coffee shops to read whatever published literature was available. This was an opportune time for the citizens to engage in conversations with each other. This elicited pondering of matters of the state. The forums became avenues to develop more great thinkers. Through these meeting, citizens learned that democracy was an important aspect of good governance. People realised democracy was achievable through studying the enlighteners’ writings. This could not have been the case before Enlightenment. Communities could not get a chance to debate, plan, and empathise their requirements and likings (Manning & France, 2006:23). Through reading different forms of literature such as essays, poems, speeches, and stories, citizens developed an interest to participate in politics. They reading forums became avenues to form local political movements. These political groups championed for the rights of all citizens in the Europe. People could access political writings at a very low cost. The publishers reduced the prices of the literature materials making it easy for people of all cost to benefit from the reading. This increased the rate of literacy. Citizens gathered for educative gossips, information, and entertainment. The availability of publishers and readers brought about social change. This is because writers such as Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote extensively on Enlightenment literature and philosophy. Rousseau promoted different social changes in Europe. Through his work, Rousseau advocated for comprehensive education for all citizens without discrimination. Rousseau knew that education was an indispensable tool for achieving democracy and empowerment of citizens. People could challenge and demand for social changes from their leaders. The work of Rousseau influenced many reforms that occurred in Europe. Voltaire used sarcasm to hold his readers to read his writings on political reforms. Through this technique, Voltaire campaigned for political reforms. He criticised those in authority and the church for authoritarian and bureaucratic leadership. The readers could overtly realise the evils that was inherent in these institutions that hindered the reforms they needed (Wilson & Rell, 2004:486). The citizens could then claim for significant improvements to make the world a better and fairer place to live. The increase of publishing firms in Europe made citizens to read some of the great poets. For instance, people could access the work of Alexander Pope who attacked the political class using satire in his poems. His writings had modernism undertones that opened the minds of many readers. The readers could criticise the authorities and demand political and social reforms. The citizens advocated for establishment of democratic rather than autocratic system of governance (Wilson & Rell, 2004:487). This is because through the reading, readers gained courage to challenge the status quo. It was a trouble to the tyrannical forms of leadership in Europe. The enlightenment ideas fuelled political movements that demanded for improvement in education and culture. The readers formed a high society of conspiracy that subverted autocracy. They did this through forming networks of intellectuals to advocate for democratic form of leadership. The readers started to build a society with an orderly framework for their existence and survival. The citizens wanted societies that embraced rationality in pursuit of happiness. Readings of most of intellectuals’ writings emancipated the readers. Citizens acquired freedom of minds from negative constraints and indoctrination policies. In addition, the studying of intellectuals’ literature broadened people’s cultural awareness. Readers could pass knowledge to the illiterate citizens. This aided in consolidating all people’s thoughts to advocate for better ways of living (Brown & Timothy, 2006:285). The printed publications become the references whenever a need arose. Knowledge permeated generations to generations. The readers became independent- minded and they could solve the problems of the day without relying on anyone. The philosophic readings changed the citizens’ line of thinking. People could acknowledge the importance of having a democratic leadership rather than a monarchical system of governance. Citizens realised that religion was full of bureaucracies and misguided its followers. In the light of this, the citizens established Deism that preached simplistic truth. The Church demonstrated immorality and social disorder. These were the central ideas that Enlightenment thoughts addressed. The continued publications of Enlightenment materials enabled morality and social order to permeate all the social levels of life. This drew many people to acquire intellectuals’ thoughts that helped to do things based on reason (Wilson & Rell, 2004:487). The expansion of printing and development of reading culture among people made the idea of human plight practical. The crucial ideas could manifest in material form and spread in unparalleled quantity, fast and accurately throughout Europe. This was important in dispelling ignorance and fighting the battle against darkness. Delightful and essential ideas were readily available in many parts of Europe. Through reading, people incorporated the ideas that intellectuals advanced in their daily activities. People increasingly embraced free intellectual enquiry of the enlightenment thoughts. The enlightenment ideas instilled confidence in human capabilities. The ideals emphasised on the sound ways of that men and women could do things for maximum pleasure but not pain. Through reading, the readers discovered that they could shape their destiny (Wilson & Rell, 2004:490). The intellectual ideals pointed out that the readers could achieve good through believing that they had innate ideas that were very useful for attaining success. The intellectuals’ publications supposed that devising forms of morals could augment the innate ideas. The printing and publishing complemented the efforts of intellectuals. It acted as a connector between the readers and the writers. The readers accessed the accurate and authentic message from the writers. Publications circulated illicitly in manuscript forms reaching many readers within a period of short time. Due to criticisms advanced in the Enlightenment thoughts, churches and states in Europe relaxed their interference of the publishing industry. The Enlightenment ideals challenged the Christian doctrine that held that all the knowledge came from God. This was the basis of the church censorship and exercise of control over the printing and publishing world. The enlightenment thoughts challenged this notion with reasoning. They devised the Deism that was free of bureaucracy in church doctrine. The relaxation of control enabled authors to publish their literary work that enlightened people (Fitzpatrick, 2004:366). It is evident from the discussion above that the publishers and readers played a big role in advancement of Enlightenment thoughts in Europe. The intellectuals continued with their efforts to enlighten the citizens to shun ignorance and advocate for political, social, economic, and cultural reforms. This was despite the restrictions that churches and states imposed in the printing and publishing industry. The efforts of the intellectuals helped to change the way of doing things in Europe. The readers become ambassadors of reforms that changed the bad leadership and emancipated people. Bibliography Beales, D.E. 2005. Enlightenment and Reform in Eighteenth-Century Europe. New York: I.B.Tauris. Brewer, D. 2006. The Discourse of Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Brown, S. & Timothy, T. 2006. Enlightenment, Reawakening And Revolution 1660-1815. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Fitzpatrick, M. 2004. The Enlightenment World. London: Routledge. Manning, S. & France, P. 2006. Enlightenment And Emancipation. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press. Wilson, E. & Rell, P. 2004. Encyclopedia Of The Enlightenment. New York: Infobase Publishing. Zack, N. 2010. The Handy Philosophy Answer Book. Canton: Visible Ink Press. Read More