The Large Enlightenment Family
The historical phenomenon commonly known as the eighteenth century Enlightenment has given historians a difficult task, because quick definitions run the risk of over generalization and, at this point in my life, I will not be able to over come this problem.
The word “Enlightenment” is typically used to represent a large family of intellectual thought that was based upon certain and autonomous ideas that reached a vast number of conclusions. These conclusions were based upon an appeal to a variety of assumptions within rationalism, empiricism, and romanticism. Although each of these systems of knowledge, at times, contradict and are set up in opposition to each other, two things bring them together as one large family: 1) human-autonomy and 2) the search for proper methods of knowledge (epistemology).
The vast outcomes of the Enlightenment have not allowed for simple definitions and they remain difficult to employ, but extremely necessary, in order to understand the history of western thought and intellectual life.
The author and historian Peter Gay influenced my thinking about the Enlightenment many years ago. According to Peter Gay, the Enlightenment can be traced back not simply to the middle ages, but back to early Greek philosophy. Peter Gay also divided the history into four helpful epochs. Ths history of Western Civilization is divided into these four epochs: 1) The River Civilizations of the Near East, 2) Ancient Greece and Rome, 3) The Christian Millennium, and 4) Modern Times. Gay argues that the Near East and Christian Millennium were ages of “superstition”, while the Ancient Greeks, Romans, and Modern Times were ages of enlightenment. From these divisions in Western history, the definition and function of enlightenment is a radical transformation away from myth to the grasping reason as the authority. This enlightenment occurred first during the Hellenes and is historically known as the first enlightenment (Gay’s connection to the Greek past). The second enlightenment came out of the suppression of the Christian millennium.
The last epoch, being “Modern Times” experienced a transformation away from myth, thus creating an ethos or a sense of “enlightenment.”
The men of the Enlightenment called themselves true teachers with disciples who were: 1) appealing to antiquity, 2) had tension with Christianity, and 3) were in a pursuit of modernity. From this tension and pursuit, it was soon recognized that true philosophy gave no credence to any deity and this became one of the main virtues of this movement. Thus, this rejection of God created a path to secularization that was determined to put an end to Christianity (the dominate religion of Western Civilization) and all forms of divine revelation (what the dominate religion claimed to be the authrority for faith and live; the bible).
In sum, the Enlightenement needs to be understood in dynamic terms, but also a shift in the gathering of human knowledge. Intellectuals, the academy and the general faberic of western society began to shift. This became a time when it was no longer reasonable to believe in the supernatrual, the divine, divine revelation, God and exclusive religion. For most, God became so transcendent (beyond) that the divine was no longer near. Religion was articulated as a human phenomenon (or simply an ‘anthropology’) and not a divine revelation (in other words it was invented by mankind not presented from God). Religion was simply created by mankind for mankind.
