The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was a philosophical movement in Europe beginning in the 1600s and running until approx. 1789. 

The roots of the Enlightenment included a reaction to the religious conflict ensuing from the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, as well as new discoveries in science. These coalesced into a period of thought which emphasised the capacity of human reason to attain knowledge, and no longer needing to rely on the authority of tradition or claims to supernatural revelation. The mood of the Enlightenment can be summed up in the motto, "Sapere aude!" (Dare to know!)

A thinker who anticipated the Enlightenment was Rene Descartes, a Frenchman residing in the Netherlands, who famously doubted everything apart from his own existence, affirming "I think therefore I am." 

Early figures in the Enlightenment included Englishman John Locke, whose thought emphasised the role of the senses and empirical experiment to obtain knowledge. Later, the Enlightenment spread to France where a leading advocate was sceptic Voltaire, who held Deist beliefs (God exists but does not intervene in the world he created). The French philosophes championed knowledge, and also in many cases were very hostile towards organised religion. From France, the Enlightenment spread to Germany where Leibnitz was a leading exponent.

In 1789, the French revolution overthrow the Old Regime in France, later leading to the Terror of 1793-5, which included a campaign of Dechristianisation. There is controversy and debate over the precise relationship between the Enlightenment and the Revolution. Some would see the events in France from 1789 as the "fruit" of Enlightenment thought, challenging all authorities in the name of reason. 

A representative of the later phase of the Enlightenment would be Immanuel Kant who died in 1804. 

The Enlightenment period with its emphasis on reason was followed, from the early 1800s, by the Romantic period which emphasised the role of feeling.