Definition and scope

The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement, broadly dated from the late 1600s to the late 1700s, that valorized reason, scientific method, and critiques of inherited authority in philosophy, politics, religion, and the arts Encyclopaedia Britannica. It is known in French as Lumières and in German as Aufklärung, and it fostered ideals of natural rights, toleration, and reform across republics and monarchies alike Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (britannica.com)

First appearances in this article of related topics: Scientific Revolution, Isaac Newton, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, Encyclopédie, Scottish Enlightenment, American Revolution, French Revolution.

Intellectual origins

Many Enlightenment commitments were grounded in the prior Scientific Revolution, which established experimental method, peer critique, and mathematical description of nature through institutions such as the Royal Society (1662) and the Académie des Sciences (1666) Encyclopaedia Britannica. Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) offered a paradigmatic synthesis of laws of motion and universal gravitation, reinforcing confidence in discoverable natural order and intelligible causality Encyclopaedia Britannica and Encyclopaedia Britannica. (britannica.com)

Core ideas and debates

Across Europe, philosophes and men and women of letters advocated the use of unaided reason, empirical observation, and critical history to interrogate tradition, while promoting concepts of natural law, social contract, and civic virtue Encyclopaedia Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. These discussions produced competing frameworks—empiricism and skepticism alongside rationalist and natural-law approaches—whose tensions animated political, moral, and religious argument in the period Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (britannica.com)

Authors, works, and salons

John Locke advanced natural rights and consensual government in works that became foundational for later constitutionalism; French philosophes such as Voltaire and Montesquieu popularized critique of clerical authority and separation of powers; and Immanuel Kant framed Enlightenment as humanity’s emergence from self-imposed immaturity, urging “Sapere aude” (“Dare to know”) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Columbia University. Urban salons, learned societies, and print culture enabled transnational exchange, culminating in projects like the Encyclopédie Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2024 ed.). (plato.stanford.edu)

The Encyclopédie

Edited by Denis Diderot with Jean Le Rond d’Alembert, the Encyclopédie (1751–1772) published 28 volumes (17 text, 11 plates) and more than 70,000 articles, advocating secular learning and practical arts amid censorship, and symbolizing collective authorship of knowledge in the French Enlightenment Encyclopaedia Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2024 ed.). (britannica.com)

Regional currents

The Scottish Enlightenment flourished from the mid‑18th century, featuring David Hume and Adam Smith alongside advances in medicine, chemistry, engineering, and geology, and embodied a program of "useful knowledge" promoted through clubs and societies in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen Encyclopaedia Britannica. Distinct national trajectories included the German Aufklärung and the Spanish Ilustración, which adapted common ideals to local institutions and debates Encyclopaedia Britannica. (britannica.com)

Politics, law, and revolution

Enlightenment political language shaped constitutional thought in the late 18th century. In North America, the American Revolution drew on natural rights and popular sovereignty, expressed in the Declaration of Independence (1776) and related antecedents like the Virginia Declaration of Rights U.S. National Archives and U.S. National Archives. In France, the French Revolution articulated universal, imprescriptible rights in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789), influenced by Montesquieu, Rousseau, and transatlantic models Encyclopaedia Britannica and Encyclopaedia Britannica. Enlightenment also interacted with monarchical reform through "enlightened despotism," in which rulers such as Frederick II of Prussia and Joseph II pursued legal, religious, and economic reforms without ceding sovereignty Encyclopaedia Britannica. (archives.gov)

Religion, deism, and toleration

Debates over revelation and natural religion were central. Deism—rooted in 17th‑ and 18th‑century Britain and spreading to the Continent and colonial America—held that reason discerns a creator and moral law in nature while rejecting ecclesiastical claims of special revelation, often coupling religious tolerance with critiques of clerical authority Encyclopaedia Britannica. Figures from Edward Herbert to Voltaire and Bolingbroke variously advanced deistic arguments, even as opponents contested their theological implications Encyclopaedia Britannica. (britannica.com)

Critiques and legacies

From the 1790s, Romantic writers and artists criticized Enlightenment rationalism and materialism, emphasizing the primacy of imagination, feeling, and the sublime in human experience Encyclopaedia Britannica and Encyclopaedia Britannica. In the 20th century, critical theorists Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno argued that the exaltation of instrumental reason could abet domination, formulating a "dialectic of Enlightenment" in which the promise of emancipation coexisted with new forms of control Encyclopaedia Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (britannica.com)

Spiritual uses of “enlightenment”

Outside European intellectual history, “enlightenment” names states of spiritual awakening. In Buddhism, bodhi denotes awakening that ends the cycle of rebirth and culminates in nirvana, the "extinguishing" of craving and suffering through the Noble Eightfold Path Encyclopaedia Britannica and Encyclopaedia Britannica. In Indian traditions, moksha signifies liberation from samsara, variously conceptualized across Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain schools Encyclopaedia Britannica. These religious meanings are conceptually distinct from the European Enlightenment but share the metaphor of awakening or release Encyclopaedia Britannica. (britannica.com)