Western Civilization - History Of European Society

Lisbon Madrid

Glasgow

Edinburgh

Cambridge

Greenwich

London LeidenAmsterdam

Copenhagen

Uppsala

Stockholm

St. Petersburg

Danzig

Berlin Warsaw

Vienna

Venice

Bologna

Florence

Rome

Naples

Pisa

Geneva

Strasbourg

Leipzig

Halle

Göttingen

Versailles

Paris

Turin

Corsica

Sardinia

Sicily

Baleari

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nds

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Atlantic R.

Ocean

Arctic Ocean

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Palaces modeled

after Versailles

Important universities

Famous European

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378Chapter 20

literate population and the influence of these ideas in
changing the Old Regime. The central ideas of the
Enlightenment are frequently simplified to a few
basic concepts. The philosophes often differed, but a
few concepts were nearly universal: (1)skepticism—
questioning the validity of assumptions about society
and the physical world without regard for traditional
authority; (2) belief in the existence of natural laws—
such as the law of gravity—that govern both the social
and physical worlds; (3) confidence that human reason,
rigorously applied, can discover these natural laws and
establish them as the basis of human activity; and

(4) optimism that the application of reason and obedi-

ence to natural laws will produce progress,leading to the

perfection of human institutions.

One of the most eminent German philosophes, Im-

manuel Kant, summarized many of these attitudes in an

essay of 1784 entitled “What Is Enlightenment?” His

definition of Enlightenment was the liberation of indi-

viduals from direction by others (see document 20.1).

Kant held that people achieved this liberation when

they resolved to use their reason and to follow its dic-

tates. Thus, he suggested a Latin motto for the Enlight-

enment: Sapere aude!(literally, “Dare to know!”), which

MAP 20.2

The Enlightenment