NAME: LEENA SHAKOOR

ASSIGNMENT: WESTERN PHILOSOPHY

TOPIC: WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT? AND ENLIGHTENMENT PROVIDED EARLY FOUNDATION TO THE

WESTERN POLITICAL THOUGHT

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The term enlightenment is used to refer to that humanistic
discipline and intellectual movement which was set in motion
and flourished across Europe and America from 16th century
to 19th century. The enlightenment was the way of believing
that focused on betterment of humanity using logic and
reasons rather than irrationality and superstitions and that’s
why it is also called “Age of Reasoning".As religion was the
main factor that was hindering in the way of societies
becoming enlighten so iit faced opposition by enlightenment
thinkers.
In the sixteenth century people were getting exploited in the
name of relegion and church was dominating .In this dark
time two thinkers Martin Luther and John Calving talked
against those issues and raised some ruminative questions
about the practices of church . People emerged in the support
of such many thinkers and this movement was called
Reformation Movement .Church and Priests restrained the
movement ,responded and brought Counter Reformation
Movement which emphasized that no change would be
brought in Church.This war between Reformation group and
Counter Reformation Group went for thirty years and came to
an end after treaty of Westphalia as that treaty reduced the
dominance of church.
The process of social ,psychological and spiritual development
started and new ideas emerged which were Supremacy of
Nature which claimed that Nature has main role in governing
the universe but not the church or priest. Thinkers developed
a way of thinking called Deism.This was believed that there is
God but he does not act on human life.John Locke stated the
idea of Liberalism and said that individual should be freed
from the rules of state and church .Rousseau questioned the
divine right of kings .In his book “The social contract” he said
that kings don’t get their power from God but from the
common will of people . The book also stated that people can
also take away that power.Enlightenment thinkers highlighted
the idea of empiricism which emphasized the role of evidence
and mention that human beings can have one knowledge
which is know as posteriori,A knowledge based on experience.
Most significant root of enlightenment was scientific
revolution which focused on understanding physical world
thorough logic and reasoning .Hence revolution happened in
all fields whether it was political or social.Revolution for
democracy brought about the French Revolution ,and the
second major revolt was Industrial revolution
The enlightenment also brought major changes in the political
world of west .It used many ideas from many philosophers
and the altered the shape political attitudes of western
political system and western civilization is based on these
ideas.It gave importance and worth to the people in the
society with ideas of individualism and egalitarianism.
In conclusion Enlightenment proved a great era for western
political thinkers and has been enormous consequence for the
modern world and brought massive changes because of its
support to notions of democracy, individual liberty
,eradication of superstitions and so forth.