Enlightenment

(proper noun)

A 17th and 18th-century philosophical movement in European history; the Age of Enlightenment or Age of Reason emphasizing rationalism.

Related Terms

Examples of Enlightenment in the following topics:

  • The Spread of Liberal Democracy

    • Liberal democracy traces its origins—and its name—to the European 18th century, also known as the Age of Enlightenment.
    • These conventional views were first challenged by a relatively small group of Enlightenment intellectuals who believed that human affairs should be guided by reason and principles of liberty and equality.
    • Near the end of the 18th century, these ideas inspired the American Revolution and the French Revolution, the pair of which gave birth to the ideology of liberalism and instituted forms of government that attempted to apply the principles of Enlightenment philosophy in practice.
    • Defend the notion of liberal democracy using examples from its enlightenment origins

  • Monarchies and Liberal Democracies

    • Liberal democracy traces its origins, and its name, to the European 18th century, also known as the Age of Enlightenment.
    • Near the end of the 18th century, these ideas inspired the American and French Revolutions, the latter giving birth to the ideology of liberalism, and instituting forms of government that attempted to apply the principles of the Enlightenment philosophers into practice.

  • Secularism and the Future of Religion

    • Coined by the British writer George Jacob Holyoake in 1851, secularism is often associated with the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, and it now plays a major role in Western society.

  • Clustering tools

    • With only 10 cases to be clustered in our example, this is not terribly enlightening here.

  • Democracy

    • The concept of representative democracy arose largely from ideas and institutions that developed during the European Middle Ages and the Age of Enlightenment and in the American and French Revolutions.

  • Religious Experience

    • The term "spiritual awakening" can refer to a wide range of experiences, including being born again, having a near-death experience, or achieving mystical liberation or enlightenment.

  • Public Sphere and Civil Society

    • "Democratic governance rests on the capacity of and opportunity for citizens to engage in enlightened debate. " Much of the debate over the public sphere involves what is the basic theoretical structure of the public sphere, how information is deliberated in the public sphere, and what influence the public sphere has over society.

  • Pluralism

    • Multiculturalism in Western countries was seen as a useful set of strategies to combat racism, protect minority communities of all types, and to undo policies that had prevented minorities from having full access to the opportunities for freedom and equality promised by the liberalism that have been the hallmark of Western societies since the Age of Enlightenment.

  • Early Thinkers and Comte

    • While his theory is no longer employed in sociology, Comte, like other Enlightenment thinkers, believed society developed in stages.

  • What is Sociology?

    • ., the industrial revolution, the creation of empires, and the age of enlightenment of scientific reasoning).