New ideas in social life
to characterize the most important ideas and values of the Age of Enlightenment;
to explain the Charles Montesquieu's separation of powers and Jean‑Jacques Rousseau's principle of social contract;
to describe the ways of spreading the ideas of Enlightenment that were practised in the eighteenth century.
During enlightenmentenlightenment, concepts and values that are close to the current aspirations of mankind have crystallized: freedom of society and individual, the emancipation of man (e.g. child, woman) or social groups (middle class, Jews, religious minorities), equality of individual people, brotherhood, solidarity. The basic idea of enlightenmentenlightenment is freedom. Other important terms are reason, law, nature. The most important philosophical concepts were empiricism represented by the English thinker John Lock and rationalism, represented by Voltaire and Denis Diderot. The most important achievement of the French theory of political thought were the views of Montesquieu who formulated the rule of the separation of power into legislative, executive and judiciary.
Compare two definitions of enlightenment - give common features.
EnlightenmentEnlightenment, as the age of reason, or the age of philosophers – the cultural trend and the period in the history of Europe, at the end of the seventeenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century. In broader meaning: an age in the history of European culture between the Baroque and Romanticism. All names reflect the breakthrough character of this era. Enlightened, or liberated from all ties human reason is to be a light that illuminates the way to know the truth about the world and man. The people of Enlightenment most valued what can be understood by reason. An important feature of the Enlightenment is the secularization of European countries and the formulation of human rights.
Source: Enlightenment, dostępny w internecie: https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oświecenie_(epoka) [dostęp 20.09.2015 r.]..
Encyklopedia PWNEnlightenment treated reason, referring to experience, on one hand as a tool of cognition and source of knowledge about the world, society and man, on the other — as an instrument of criticism and skeptical judgment of the existing knowledge, enabling the release of humanity from the state of ignorance, from superstition, religious, intellectual and political authorities. The reason was elevated to the rank of a guide in the upbringing of young generations. Influenced by the views of M. Montaigne, Fénelon and empiricism of Locke, the Enlightenment concept of upbringing and education adapted to the requirements of modern life, critical of traditional authorities, based on knowledge of modern languages, geography, modern history and exact sciences, preparing for a profession and civic life, but at the same time subordinated to the state, has been consolidated.
Source: Encyklopedia PWN: oświecenie.
Familiarize yourself with the leading scientific achievement of the European Enlightenment. Characterize its meaning.
Match quotes with their authors
<i>When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty. (…) there is no liberty if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive.</i>, <i>In the natural order men are all equal and their common calling is that of manhood... Life is the trade I would teach him. When he leaves me, I grant you, he will be neither a magistrate, a soldier, nor a priest; he will be a man. All that becomes a man he will learn as quickly as another.</i>, <i>By my own experience, I thus learned that the source of true happiness is within us and that it is not within the power of men to make anyone who can will to be happy truly miserable.</i>, <i>Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.</i>
| Charles Louis de Montesquieu | |
|---|---|
| Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
Keywords
Enlightenment, scientific discourse, empiricism
Glossary
Oświecenie – epoka w dziejach kultury europejskiej między barokiem a romantyzmem
Dyskurs naukowy – dyskusja na tematy naukowe
Racjonalizm – kierunek filozoficzny przyznający rozumowi najważniejszą role w procesie poznania
Empiryzm - pogląd według którego zasadniczą rolę w poznaniu odgrywa doświadczenie
Fizjokratyzm – teoria ekonomiczna powstała we Francji w II połowie XVIII w; u jej podłoża leżała idea porządku naturalnego
Umowa społeczna – teoria na temat podstaw władzy państwowej