Influential Thinkers In Enlightenment

Influential Thinkers In promised landThe most significant development in the 18th ampere-second was intellectual progress, known as the Enlightenment. It is a mentation movement which gathered various conceptions of god, nature and gentle beings to a kind of world outlook. Many hoi polloi approve it. The movement caused revolution changes in art, philosophy and politics. It also advocated reason, suspected church authorities and Feudalism. The ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers had a deeply impact on the European and the Euro-American societies.The most important instrument of the Enlightenment was the scientific revolution. Between the 17th century and the 18th century, based on direct observation and mathematical reasoning, astronomers and physicists sawing machine the earth and the universe in a new vision. Relying on observation and mathematics, scholars transformed the earthy science in a process which is known as the scientific revolution.Some astronomers and mathemati cians also made contribution to the revolution. Ptolemy wrote a prevail known as the Almagest that combined opinions active the universe. He vox populi that the earth was at its centre. However, in 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus published a treatise On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres that broke with Ptolemaic theory and argued that the sun stood at the centre of the universe. Kepler demonstrated that planetary orbits be elliptical. Gailleo who invented the telescope used it to view the universe. He popularized the idea that the universe is rational and subject to the laws of mathematics (Bentley, 2002).Another unchewable figure was Isaac Newton who culminated the new get along to science. He combined mathematical modeling and scientific observation to derive his famous laws of motion and theory of universal gravitation. Newtons vision of the universe was so powerful and persuasive that its influence extended well beyond science. His work suggested that rational analysis of h uman behavior and institutions could lead to fresh insights about the human as well as the natural world (Bentley, 2002).Inspired and support by three innovative astronomers, physicists and mathematicians. European and Euro-American thinkers started an ambitious project to transform all human sentiment. They abandoned Aristotelian philosophy, Christian religion, and other traditionally recognized authorities, and they began to analyze the world where they live in a rational way. Enlightenment thinkers sought to abide by natural laws that governed human society. John Lock, the English philosopher, is the founder of empiricis. He sought to identify the principles of psychology and argued that all human knowledge comes from sense perceptions. He threw apart Rene Descartess innate ideas and argued that experience offered spiritual conception to humans heart. He believed the world is consisted of material. His empiricism was continuously developed by later people and became the Europe an chief(prenominal) philosophy trend. In politics, he held constitutional monarchy and natural right which includes life, freedom and property right. Between 1689 and 1690 he wrote the most important political treatises The Government. In the runner treatise, he disproved Filmers idea that god conferred the monarch authority. In the second treatise, he advocated the rulers authorities should be agreed by the ruled and the only purpose of edifice country is protecting the security and peoples right. When the government went against the purpose, people have the right to take back the authority by taking action (John Locke, 2010).The Scottish philosopher crack Smith devoted special thought to the nature of early capitalist society and the principles that made it work. In 1776 he published a lengthy book An inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, a wide-ranging work that uphold free, unregulated markets and capitalist corporation as the main factor of prosperit y. The source of Smiths optimism about capitalism is his conviction that society as a whole benefits when individuals pursue their own economic interests and trade on a free market (Bentley, 2002).France , the meaning of the Enlightenment, produced many prominent intellectuals known as philosophes who advanced the cause of reason. For example, the French nobleman Charles Louis sought to establish a science of politics and discover principles that would bear on political liberty in a prosperous and stable state.Different from philophers, philosophes addressed their works more to the educated public than to scholars. Instead of formal philosophic treatises, they mostly composed histories, novels, dramas, satires, and pamphlets on religious, moral, and political issues.The leader of the Enlightenment is Voltaire who is a philosophe, a writer and a philosopher. Voltaire championed individual freedom and attacked oppressive policies with promote humourous remark and intense irony. He held nature right and thought that people are equal in nature and before the law. He also waged a long literary campaign against the Roman Catholic church, which he is in the charge of crazy, intolerance and incalculable human suffering. He considered that the church is a factor of oppression (Voltaire, 2010).As the earlier famous philosophe, Hobbes created machine materialism. He thought that the universe consisted of all the moving extension physical object. He tried hard to relieve humans emotion and desire by the principle of mechanical motion. His moral thought includes natural rights and natural laws. The former one means that humans natural character is egoism. The latter means that humans reason rules morality. He disproved the idea that god confers the authority to rulers. He advocated absolute monarchy. He also considered that society had to take up the general will (Hobbes, 2010).As one of the representative of the Enlightenment, Rousseau is a radical who made the mos t fierce and severe criticize on French feudalistic society. His ideological essence and basic principle is sovereignty of the people. He considered that all rights belongs to people, government and officials are awarded by people, people have the right to appoint the government, people have the right to replace them, even have the right to revolt in order to abolish rulers who oppress people. He also thought that citizens should observe the law because it is free behaviour. In education, he proposed the idea return to nature that let childrens body freely develop (Rousseau, 2010).Although Enlightenment thinkers reached common res publica on the excellence and the effect of humans reason, yet they hold different opinions on detailed issues in politics, religion, philosophy and so on. In politics, Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire and Hobbes all supported with natural rights. Locke and Hobbess nature rights includes life right, freedom right and property right, they thought that people ha ve the right to gain legal property however, Voltaire thought that the incommensurate property right can not be avoided and Hobbes thought that natural rights is egoism. Locke and Hobbes both objected to innate ideas and Voltaire and Rousseau both approved with innate ideas. Locke and Rousseau advocated revolutionary legitimacy. But Hobbes insisted on the opinion that people must obey if the ruler was conferred authority. Locke, Voltaire and Rousseau all advocated freedom and equality. Rousseau considered that the law is very important, people should accept it. Hobbes and Voltaire did not agree with division of power. Voltaire thought that rulers power came from the ruled, the only purpose of building country is protecting the security and peoples right, when the government went against the purpose, people have the right to take back the authority by taking action. But Locke advocated distribution of power. Locke, Rousseau and Hobbes all advocated social contract. Rousseau consider ed private ownership is the source of unequal state. In philosophy, Locke and Voltaire both admitted the idea that the world is consisted of material. Rousseau and Voltaire both considered that acknowledge rose from experience. Locke thought peoples heart was just like a paper and experience offered mind conception to it. Hobbes considered that material can not be divide from idea and material did not rely on our thought. In religion, Voltaire and Rousseau are both deist. Voltaire and Hobbes both disproved religion, they thought religion is requisite to maintain social order.The ideas of these Enlightenment thinkers made a lot of contribution to the community. What worth being mentioned is that their ideas not only exert great influence on the scholars, but also run the European political world, including the most influential figures at that that time such as Napoleon and Queen Catherine. Influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, Napoleon who overthrew the Diretory and became a French troops dictator created a united legal code for France. The code included that equal before the law, careers open to talent, free belief, protection of private property, abolition of feudal system and a secular state (Napoleon, 2010). Napoleon also valued education. As the most able Russian monarch, Catherine also influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. She encouraged nobles to travel in Western Europe and building school to educate aristocrats. She often communicated with some philosophes. She regarded herself as an enlightened despot. She limited the punishments that the nobles inflicted on the serfs. She also abolished the death punishment. But when the thoughts challenged her rule, she began to object to it (Catherine, 2010). Although the ideas were not carried out completely to the end, it also shook some traditional thoughts.The impact of Enlightenment on human history should never be undervalued. It washy the influence of organized religion. It also encourag ed the replacement of Christian values, which had guided Europeans on religion and moral affairs for a very long time. Furthermore, it encouraged political and cultural leaders to rationally analyze the society and intervene actively in the Enlightenment matters for the interests that brought from promoting progress and prosperity. In many ways, the Enlightenment thought continues to influence European and Euro-American societies in the following centuries.Reference ListBentley Jerry H. (2002). Adam Smith on the capitalist market. Traditions Encounters. The McGraw-Hill companies. Retrieved whitethorn 22, 2010, from p657Bentley Jerry H. (2002). The limits of westernization. Traditions Encounters. The McGraw-Hill companies. Retrieved May 22, 2010, from p786Bentley Jerry H. (2002). Science and enlightenment. Traditions Encounters. The McGraw-Hill companies. Retrieved May 22, 2010, from pp658-662Hobbes. (2010). Baike baidu. Retrieved May 22 2010, from http// baike.baidu.com/view/3498 4. htmLocke, J. (2010). Baike baidu. Retrieved May 22, 2010, from http//baike. baidu.com/view/51406.htmNapoleon. (2010). Baike baidu. Retrieved May 22, 2010, fromhttp//baike.baidu.com/view/4866.htmRousseau. (2010). Baike baidu. Retrieved May 22, 2010, from http//baike.baidu com/view/6499.htmVoltaire. (2010). Baike baidu. Retrieved May 22, 2010, from http//baike.baidu.com/view/view/4782.htm