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Debating societies emerged in London in the early eighteenth century, and were a prominent feature of society until the end of the century. The origins of the debating societies are not certain, but by the mid-18th century, London fostered an active debating culture. Topics ranged from current events and governmental policy, to love and marriage, and the societies welcomed participants from both genders and all social backgrounds, examplifying the enlarged public sphere of the Age of Enlightenment. At the end of the century, the political environment created by the French Revolution led to the tightening of governmental restrictions. The debating societies declined, and they virtually disappeared by the beginning of the nineteenth century. Scholarship on London's debating societies is hindered by the lack of records left by the societies,〔Mary Thale, "London Debating Societies in the 1790s," ''The Historical Journal'' 32, no. 1 (March 1989): 58-9.〕 but the work of historian Donna T. Andrew, among others, has contributed to the field. ==Debating Societies and the Enlightenment== :''See main article'': Age of Enlightenment The Enlightenment is a period of history identified with the eighteenth century. Arising throughout Europe, Enlightenment philosophy emphasized reason as the foremost source of authority in all matters, and was simultaneously linked to increased secularization and often political upheaval. The most obvious example of this link is the French Revolution of 1789. The Enlightenment in France is tightly associated with the rise of the salons and the academies, institutions which have been intensely studied by many notable historians.〔See Antoine Lilti, "Sociability and Mondanité: Men of Letters in the Parisian Salons of the Eighteenth-Century," ''French Historical Studies'' 28, no. 3 (Summer 2005): 415-45; Dena Goodman, The Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment (Cornell: Cornell University Press, 1994).〕 The English Enlightenment has historically been largely associated with the rise of coffeehouse culture, a topic also investigated by many historians.〔See Brian William Cowan, ''The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British Coffeehouse'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005).〕 More recent scholarship has identified early elements of the Enlightenment in other European countries, such as the Low Countries.〔See Jonathan Israel, ''Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).〕 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「London Debating Societies」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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