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The British government, for the most part, ignored the Enlightenment's leaders in England and Scotland, although it did give Newton a knighthood and a very lucrative government office. A common theme among most countries which derived Enlightenment ideas from Europe was the intentional non-inclusion of Enlightenment philosophies pertaining to ...
In France the government was hostile, and the philosophers fought against its censorship. The British government generally ignored the Enlightenment's leaders. Frederick the Great , who ruled Prussia 1740–1786, was an enthusiast for French ideas [ citation needed ] (he ridiculed German culture and was unaware of the remarkable advances it was ...
King Louis XIV of France, often considered by historians as an archetype of absolutism. Absolutism or the Age of Absolutism (c. 1610 – c. 1789) is a historiographical term used to describe a form of monarchical power that is unrestrained by all other institutions, such as churches, legislatures, or social elites. [1]
Both the moderate Enlightenment and a radical or revolutionary Enlightenment were reactions against the authoritarianism, irrationality, and obscurantism of the established churches. Philosophers such as Voltaire depicted organized religion as hostile to the development of reason and the progress of science and incapable of verification.
There are two main points of view with regard to cultural change as a cause of the French Revolution: the direct influence of Enlightenment ideas on French citizens, meaning that they valued the ideas of liberty and equality discussed by Rousseau and Voltaire et al, or the indirect influence of the Enlightenment insofar as it created a ...
The period is noted for the change from absolutist monarchies to representative governments with a written constitution, and the creation of nation states. Influenced by the new ideas of the Enlightenment , the American Revolution (1765–1783) is usually considered the starting point of the Age of Revolution.
Russia: Russian Enlightenment, 18th-century period of active government encouragement of proliferation of arts and sciences in Russia; Scotland: Scottish Enlightenment, period in 18th-century Scotland; Spain: Enlightenment in Spain, came to Spain with a new dynasty, the Bourbons, subsequent reform and 'enlightened despotism'
The Enlightenment emphasized scientific inquiry and approaches to the world, which could be in conflict with religious world views. The Spanish Inquisition had the power to censor books and suppress unorthodox thought, increasingly ideas of the Enlightenment circulated in Spain.