"The Age of Enlightenment"

Influenced by Locke's faith in reason and justice, many eighteenth-century thinkers hoped to establish the universal liberty, aid human progress, and secure the rights of man. They did not advocate these things simply for themselves, but for all humanity. When we speak of human rights today, we are using the language and expressing the principles of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment.

This idea that all human beings had certain inalienable rights was powerful. During the eighteenth century, it found political expression first in the American and then in the French Revolution. The American and French revolutionaries appealed not to the special rights or characteristics of Americans or Frenchmen, but to the rights of man, which they believed were valid for everyone. The idea that all men were by Nature and Nature's God endowed with certain rights was contained in the great documents that stated the principles of those revolutions: The Declaration of Independence (1776) and The Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789).

Eighteenth-century thinkers commonly assumed that through the use of reason people could harmonize society with the laws of nature, and thus progress toward happiness and perfection. Thinkers in previous centuries hadn't talked much about human progress or human happiness. In the eighteenth century, however, people never stopped talking about them. They were eager to discover ways to ensure both the happiness of the individual and the welfare of society, and to remove the obstacles that stood in the way of reaching that goal, whether it was ignorance, superstition, tradition, oppressive laws or reactionary governments.

Want To Know More? For more information on the Age of Enlightenment visit The Philosophers of the Enlightenment. What were women doing? Find out at Women of the Enlightenment. To learn more about John Locke try the Works of John Locke.

Next Week: The Declaration of Independence

You are invited to join Suite 101's editors as they explore the eighteenth century.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic