Throughout the sixteenth century, numerous scientific revolution had taken place, and they changed the manner in which the political, religious and developmental issues took place up to the eighteenth century. Margret Jacobs gives an insight to this explaining some of the origin of the entire ideology of enlightenment in the western societies. She enables the readers to understand the trajectory of the concept through the argument that there is an importance of having the revival of the academic work of the past through the upheaval and renaissance related to the reformation of the Protestants and the works of science. She uses the works of different philosophers and scientists such as Galileo Galilei, Nicholaus Copernicus, Rene Descartes, Francis Bacon and Isaac Newton. Their works are seen to be part of the innovations in engineering and medicine (Jacob, 46). These changes assisted in the scientific investigations, which are advanced, and in turn popularizing the revolution of science.
The enlightenment is explained to have been caused by the Thirty Years' War. The war began in 1618, ended 1648 leaving a lot of destructions on its path. After the war, the Germans were quick to criticize the ideology behind warfare and nationalism. Authors such as John Comenius and Hugo Grotius were some of the early writers to come up with solutions, which were against the traditions. At the same time, individuals from the European nations were interested in changing their world, which in turn resulted into a scientific study. It apparent became possible for individuals to explore the world making it possible for the Europeans to be exposed to other philosophies and cultures (Hendricks, 179). They then endured mistreatment from the church and monarchies making the average Europeans speak out.
During the pre-enlightenment period, they were able to have numerous discoveries that started slowly, but later could be seen as big initiatives. The world came to realize that they were plunging into numerous innovations and philosophies, which were changing the world. They were engaged in the world of astronomy and earth science through the help of individuals such as Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler which were later disapproved by the "truths" of Aristotle. Isaac Newton would not have been understood better if the works of Francis Bacon and René Descartes did not have taken the centre stage (Jacob, 64). It is due to their revision of the scientific method. At defining moment, the world was introduced to different forms of discoveries through hypotheses that were built on observations. During this time, numerous scientists were on the receiving end when it was a question of negative skepticism and derisions from the religious community. They felt that the scientists were on the verge of spreading the gospel of understanding the explanations of faith. However, the scientists were stubbornly making it possible for them to breed different generations of thinkers.
As enlightenment was taking place in Europe, England was also coming up with its generation of thinkers. The first person that established himself as a thinker was Thomas Hobbes, who had a lot of controversies especially in his work known as Leviathan (Hendricks, 185). He embarked on the sociologic path that saw to it that he gave out the perception that the any system in the world had to entitle to one ruler in order to keep the balance of nature. John Locke who promoted the ideology of having an opposite side of government later echoed him.
The French also had their share of enlightenment in the mid 1700s. It is explained that majority of the thinkers were born during the period of the Glorious Revolution. The French thinkers were concerned about the power of reasoning that was a new way that the human society had discovered in terms of having a natural law of governing them. Baron de Montesquieu derived his inspiration from Locke and took it as a political tool of solidifying his concepts of dividing the government (Jacob, 91). It meant that he had to use the system of separation of power. Voltaire then came into the picture with a more caustic approach that was embedded on inciting political and social changes through criticism and satire. His works were based on exposing injustices that were being perpetrated by the people in power. Denis Diderot, who did not concentrate revolutionary movement but rather attaining knowledge that would be used in his Encyclopédie later, followed them (Hendricks, 188). This period also hit the Romans who had to deal with Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who was championing changes in the governance. He wanted to have a government that dealt with issues small and direct democracy that reflected the population. He later decided to write the Confessions, which was a reflection of his life as he was on the verge of retirement.
Enlightenment could not handle the type of competition that was being propagated by Romanticism, which was seen to be more appealing to the common people (Jacob, 112). These individuals were not ready to adhere to the scientific ideas of the philosophers as they were less educated.
Works Cited
Hendricks, C. "The Enlightenment: a Brief History with Documents, by Margaret C. Jacob." Teaching Philosophy. 26 (2003): 179-181. Print.
Hendricks, Christina, and Margaret C. Jacob. "Reviews - the Enlightenment: a Brief History with Documents." Teaching Philosophy. 26.2 (2003): 179. Print.
Jacob, Margaret C. The Enlightenment: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. Print.
