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The Enlightenment, known in French as the ''Siècle des Lumières'' (Century of Enlightenment), and in German as the ''Aufklärung'', was a philosophical movement which dominated the world of ideas in Europe in the 18th century. The principal goals of Enlightenment thinkers were liberty, progress, reason, tolerance, and ending the abuses of the church and state.〔Outram, Dorinda. ''Panorama of the Enlightenment''. Getty Publications, 2006, p. 29.〕〔Milan Zafirovski, ''The Enlightenment and Its Effects on Modern Society'' (201) p 144〕 In France, the central doctrines of the Lumières were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to the principle of absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church.〔 The Enlightenment was marked by increasing empiricism, scientific rigor, and reductionism, along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy. French historians traditionally place the Enlightenment between 1715, the year that Louis XIV died, and 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution. Some recent historians begin the period in the 1620s, with the start of the scientific revolution. The ''Philosophes'', the French term for the philosophers of the period, widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, Masonic lodges, literary salons and coffee houses, and through printed books and pamphlets. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the church, and prepared the way for the revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries.〔 A variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism and neo-classicism, trace their intellectual heritage back to the Enlightenment.〔Eugen Weber, ''Movements, Currents, Trends: Aspects of European Thought in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries'' (1992)〕 The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the scientific revolution. Earlier philosophers whose work influenced the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon, Descartes, Locke, and Spinoza.〔Sootin, Harry. "Isaac Newton." New York, Messner(1955)〕 The major figures of the Enlightenment included Cesare Beccaria, Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Adam Smith, and Immanuel Kant. Some European rulers, including Catherine II of Russia, Joseph II of Austria and Frederick I of Prussia, tried to apply Enlightenment thought on religious and political tolerance, which became known as enlightened absolutism. The Americans Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson came to Europe during the period and contributed actively to the scientific and political debate, and the ideals of the Enlightenment were incorporated into the United States Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Online catalog of Exposition on the Lumieres at the French National Library )〕 The most influential publication of the Enlightenment was the ''Encyclopédie'', compiled by Denis Diderot and (until 1759) by Jean le Rond d'Alembert and a team of 150 scientists and philosophers. It was published between 1751 and 1772 in thirty-five volumes, and spread the ideas of the Enlightenment across Europe and beyond.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Siècle_des_Lumières )〕 Other landmark publications were the ''Dictionnaire philosophique'' (Philosophical Dictionary, 1764) and ''Letters on the English'' (1733) written by Voltaire; Rousseau's ''Discourse on Inequality'' (1754) and ''The Social Contract'' (1762); and Montesquieu's ''Spirit of the Laws'' (1748). The ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789. After the Revolution, the Enlightenment was followed by an opposing intellectual movement known as Romanticism. ==Philosophy== In the mid-18th century, Paris became the center of an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity challenging traditional doctrines and dogmas. The philosophic movement was led by Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who argued for a society based upon reason rather than faith and Catholic doctrine, for a new civil order based on natural law, and for science based on experiments and observation. The political philosopher Montesquieu introduced the idea of a separation of powers in a government, a concept which was enthusiastically adopted by the authors of the United States Constitution. While the ''Philosophes'' of the French Enlightenment were not revolutionaries, and many were members of the nobility, their ideas played an important part in undermining the legitimacy of the Old Regime and shaping the French Revolution. There were two distinct lines of Enlightenment thought: the radical enlightenment, inspired by the philosophy of Spinoza, advocating democracy, individual liberty, freedom of expression, and eradication of religious authority; and a second, more moderate variety, supported by René Descartes, John Locke, Christian Wolff, Isaac Newton and others, which sought accommodation between reform and the traditional systems of power and faith.〔Israel 2006, p. 11.〕〔Israel 2010, p. 19.〕〔Israel 2010, p. vii–viii.〕〔Israel 2010, pp. 15ff.〕 Both lines of thought were opposed by the conservative Counter-Enlightenment.〔Israel 2006, p. 11.〕 Francis Hutcheson, a moral philosopher, described the utilitarian and consequentialist principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words, "the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers". Much of what is incorporated in the scientific method (the nature of knowledge, evidence, experience, and causation) and some modern attitudes towards the relationship between science and religion were developed by his protégés David Hume and Adam Smith. Hume became a major figure in the skeptical philosophical and empiricist traditions of philosophy. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom and political authority, as well as map out a view of the public sphere through private and public reason.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Kant's essay What is Enlightenment? )〕 Kant's work continued to shape German thought, and indeed all of European philosophy, well into the 20th century.〔Manfred Kuehn, ''Kant: A Biography'' (2001).〕 Mary Wollstonecraft was one of England's earliest feminist philosophers. She argued for a society based on reason, and that women, as well as men, should be treated as rational beings. She is best known for her work ''A Vindication of the Rights of Woman'' (1791).〔Mary Wollstonecraft, ''A Vindication of the Rights of Woman'' (Renascence Editions, 2000) (online )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Age of Enlightenment」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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