Knowra Age of Enlightenment Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment was an intellectual and cultural movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that emphasized reason, empirical inquiry, individual liberty, and criticism of traditional authority.
Scientific Revolution : A transformation in European science from the 16th through 17th centuries, marked by observation, experiment, and mathematical explanation. Its methods and discoveries helped make empirical inquiry a model for Enlightenment knowledge.
John Locke : An English philosopher whose writings shaped theories of experience, natural rights, and government by consent. His arguments for rights and consent became major resources for Enlightenment political thought.
Encyclopédie : A French reference work published between 1751 and 1772, edited chiefly by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert. It embodied the effort to gather, classify, and spread knowledge beyond traditional authorities.
Divine right of kings : A doctrine that monarchs receive their authority directly from God and are not accountable to earthly subjects. Enlightenment theories of consent challenged this defense of hereditary political authority.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen : A 1789 French revolutionary document that proclaimed individual rights and principles of national sovereignty. It gave revolutionary expression to claims about equal rights and legitimate political authority.
Rationalism : A philosophical approach that gives reason a central role in acquiring and justifying knowledge. Enlightenment thinkers applied confidence in reason to questions beyond mathematics and metaphysics.
Voltaire : A French writer and polemicist known for criticizing religious intolerance, censorship, and abuses of power. His satire and advocacy made criticism of clerical and state authority publicly influential.
Separation of powers : A constitutional principle that divides government authority among distinct branches to limit its concentration. Montesquieu’s formulation translated criticism of despotism into an institutional design.
Scholasticism : A medieval and early modern method of learning that used dialectical reasoning to interpret authoritative texts. Enlightenment criticism often opposed inherited textual authority, though it retained rigorous argument.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights : A 1948 United Nations declaration setting out a common standard of fundamental human rights. Its universal language extends a rights tradition shaped in part by Enlightenment political thought.
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