intellectual led enlightenment essay
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Path to the Enlightenment
With the ideological turmoil happening prior to most of 18th hundred years Western European countries, the Age of Enlightenment was but an inevitable outcome. Religious and political thoughts littered European countries by the spades, and with the overseas revolutions and tensions that led up to questioning both divine proper and faith based authority. The Reformation, together with the discordant feelings toward the monarchy, became important turning points in history. Instead of window blind faith, the Enlightened person turned to purpose and science and believed in the utopian harmonic suitable. But just how did this kind of Enlightenment come about?
Enlightenment was a movement that “strove clinically to uncover spiritual truths rising above person sectarian disputes” (Zhivov). As well simultaneously known as the “Age of Reason, ” the Enlightenment culminated in a set of beliefs that searched for to query the customs, customs, and moral morals of the cultural environment. Even though the schools of thought vary from country to country, and from philosopher to philosopher, the idea of applying rationality and science (Hermetic science in the time) to explain belief was your crux in the Enlightenment. Philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and Michel Foucault had varying views on the objective of the Enlightenment, but the total idea remained the same.
Pertaining to Kant, the Enlightenment was “humanity’s get out of from a state of immaturity, [striving] toward wisdom and transition from blind obedience to authority to realistic compliance with rules” (Gordon). It was a “coming of age” pertaining to humanity, concentrating on the use of intelligence and common sense reason as opposed to the blatant ignorance that the inhabitants displayed before the time period. However, Foucault found the process since “an celebration, or a set of events and complex traditional processes, [that is] located at a particular point in the development of European societies” (Gordon). Equally men contact upon the change of European culture for the better, a “development” in respect to Foucault, and a “maturity” in Kant’s terms. In many different writings, they have even been related to the idea of a “utopia, ” a harmonic environment.
The Enlightenment followed a string of Western European motions: the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, plus the Reformation. As the Renaissance and the Scientific Wave were both movements of artistic and intellectual hobbies, it was the Reformation that became a significant aspect in the movement towards the Age of Reason. The Roman Catholic Chapel had converted into a corrupt, yet effective system. In its climb to power and position, the Church went through fleeting forces, choosing to side with one particular current powerful empire at the same time. Priests sold indulgences – an outrage a certain Matn Luther mentioned in The Ninety-Five Theses – and pardoned various political figures with gold coin enough to pay all their way to forgiveness.
Eventually, the English Reformation took place, wherein King Henry VIII broke via Rome and fashioned himself the Head of the Church plus the State. With this schism, it had been only an issue of time prior to Europe’s faith based factions broke into different sides; initially it was mostly a divide between the Protestants and the Catholics. This ultimately led to further more factions inside religions. Just like
- Category: history
- Words: 572
- Pages: 2
- Project Type: Essay