THREE ENLIGHTENMENT WRITERS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION,
There is quite a number of social, scientific, political and scientific growths in Europe that took place in seventeenth and sixteenth centuries. It is from these growths we get to understand the three vital ideas outlining everything the Enlightenment period represents. Basically, the Enlightenment period refers to the extensive philosophical, social, intellectual and cultural advancements which began to emerge in some regions of Europe like Germany, France and England. The regions where the three critical ideas also emerged. Those ideas include (1) individualism- denoting the crucial roles of individuals and their respective human rights, (2) relativism- a notion which was enacted to denote equality as far as beliefs, ideas and cultures are concerned, and (3) rationalism- a principle that was put forward to make the world a better place through reasoning influence and reality actions .
During this point in time, there were three prominent writers who highly promoted the three ideas of individualism, relativism and rationalism. They were Montesquieu, Voltaire and Jean Jacque Rousseau. All the three of them had a number of written resources like novels, literature books and plays to enforce their ideas .
Voltaire, a French philosopher happens to be the great enthusiast among the three who advocated for the idea of rationalism . Contrally to many other English philosophers, Voltaire developed the idea of rationalism out of his unique perception of doubting everything. He then went ahead with his notion to powerfully attempt to develop a French philosophy which was to be based on his idea of rationalism. According to Voltaire, all humans were supposed to be led by their individual experiences. He largely borrowed this view from his English counterparts. He envisioned France to become more like England at that time. Some of the very important portion of his work include the letters which he wrote concerning the English state . In this letter, Voltaire starts by proposing to the citizens of French the visions of John Locke and Isaac Newton . “Candide” became Voltaire’s famous work and which adopted a satire style. This work was printed in the year 1759. In this work, Voltaire appears to deviate from some of the tendencies which were common during this Enlightenment era to mock and make fun of some of its central elements, the main idea he proposed was that human beings were capable of improving themselves and also the world around them. Voltaire was well known out of his tendency to question his own personal philosophies. He could also change occasionally from a hopeful perception of the world to a rather negative view. These fluctuations are clearly depicted in his “Candide” piece of work.
Jean Jacque Rousseau is another brilliant French philosopher . He is mainly known by his statement “Man is born free, and everything he is in chains.” As he wrote in “The Social Contract.” Eventually, his Enlightenment ideas played a major role in bringing the French Revolution which took place during 1789-1799. The revolution marked the end of clerical governance, monarchy rule and suppression in France. Afterwards, the idea of Enlightenment behind freedom and independence began to spread throughout Europe, weakening the notion of individualism which had been fueled by the upsurge in Bureaucratization and secularization of political and communal structures among the societies in Europe, adding up to complicate the modern way of life .
The third philosopher, Montesquieu mainly encouraged cultural relativism. In one of his famous works “Esprit de Lois”, Montesquieu seems not to make efforts on getting the truth which could have been realized by undertaking an Assessment on different religions in the ways other people might have established or recorded before in regard to creating good people, a government that has concern to his people and an effective society. According to him, any faith must be ethical, be able to generate good citizens and inspire citizens to work . According to Montesquieu, it is inconvenient to change country’s religion as it has already adapted to its climate. Montesquieu in addition wrote Persian letters which depicts the worldview of Persian travelers to Europe.
Rationalism, Relativism and Individualism are the three main ideas that Enlightenment writers focused on, in order to reveal the important concepts that would propel a man’s ability to be reasonable, to abandon both conventions and traditions which were being used before in Europe and be in a position to make their own choices independently. Additionally, the three ideas could acted as a representation and independence of man’s intelligence from God. This development opened a way to gaining insights on new ideas as well as new doors to new discoveries which eventually posed a threat to the most powerful organizations in Europe . Although those three philosophers, Voltaire, Jean Jacque Rousseau, and Montesquieu had different views as observed above, because of their views many changes were realized. The ideas proposed by these three philosophers still exist today.
References
Lutz, Donald S. “The relative influence of European writers on late eighteenth-century American political thought.” American Political Science Review 78, no. 1 (1984): 189-197.
Porter, Roy. “Who Was the Enlightenment?.” In The Enlightenment, pp. 42-50. Macmillan Education UK, 1990.
O’brien, Karen. Narratives of Enlightenment: cosmopolitan history from Voltaire to Gibbon. Vol. 34. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
