Russell Ellis Simerly III

AP European History
Chapter 17—The Age of Enlightenment: Eighteenth Century Thought

Chapter Overview:

The Enlightenment is a movement of people and ideas that fostered the expansion of literate sectors of European society and that economic improvement and political reform were both possible and desirable.

Contemporary western political and economic thought is a product of Enlightenment thinking; therefore, some historians believe the process of Enlightenment continues today.

Inspired by the scientific revolution and prepared to challenge traditional intellectual and theological authority, Enlightenment writers believed that human beings can comprehend the operation of physical nature and mold it to achieve material and moral improvement, economic growth, and administrative reform.

Enlightenment intellectuals advocated agricultural improvement, commercial society, expanding consumption, and the application of innovative rational methods to traditional social and economic practices.

The spirit of innovation and improvement came to characterize modern Europe and Western society.

Politically, the Enlightenment had a direct impact on some rulers--in eastern and central Europe—whose policies came to be known as enlightened absolutism.

Section One: Formative Influences of the Enlightenment

Section Overview
Chief factors that fostered the ideas of the Enlightenment
The Newtonian worldview the political stability and commercial prosperity in Great Britain after 1688 the need for administrative and economic reform after the wars of Louis XIV the consolidation of what is known as a print culture

Ideas of Newton and Locke

Isaac Newton
The achievements in science from Copernicus to Newton convinced European thinkers that both the ancient and medieval Christian worlds were incorrect and confused