THE ENLIGHTENMENT

WHAT IS IT?
Acc to Macionis (1989), the enlightenment was a period in the eighteenth century when many scientific
discoveries were made.
Zeitlin (1996:10) cited by Ritzer (2008:10) defines the enlightenment as a period of remarkable
intellectual development and change in philosophical thought.
The age of Enlightenment is sometimes called the Age of Reason.
DURATION OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT
It covers about a century and a half in Europe, beginning with the publication of Francis Bacon Novum
Organum (1620) and ending with Immanuel Kants Critique of Pure Reason (1781).
From the perspective of socio-political phenomena, the period is considered to have begun with the
close of the thirty years wars (1648) and ended with the French Revolution (1789).
FORCES BEHIND THE ENLIGHTENMENT
The Enlightenment was inspired by two forces namely seventeenth century philosophy (rationalism) and
science (empiricism).
KEY FIGURES IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT ERA
SCIENCE
The heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) started what historians call the "scientific
revolution." This scientific revolution, based on experimentation and reason, questioned previously held
truths and searched for new answers. It modified the medieval view of the world and human beings'
relation to it. It thus helped shape the Enlightenment.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) made the first systematic studies of uniformly accelerated motion and
improved astronomical observations, which helped to support Copernicanism. Edmond Halley (1656-
1742) discovered the proper motion of stars and the periodicity of comets. Other significant scientific
advances were made by Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Christiaan Huygens
(1629-1695), Robert Hooke (1635-1703), and Gottfried Leibniz.
Isaac Newton (1643-1727) combined mathematics of axiomatic proof with mechanics of
physical observation and established a coherent system of verifiable predictions in his
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687). His greatest claim to prominence came
from a systematic application of algebra to geometry, which synthesized a workable calculus
applicable to scientific problems. The integration of algebraic thinking, acquired from the
Islamic world over the previous two centuries, and geometric thinking which had dominated
Western mathematics and philosophy since at least Eudoxus, precipitated a scientific and
mathematical revolution.
The Enlightenment was a time when the solar system was truly discovered: With the accurate
calculation of orbits, such as Halley's comet, the discovery of the first planet since antiquity,
Uranus by William Herschel (1738-1822), and the calculation of the mass of the Sun using
Newton's theory of universal gravitation. These series of discoveries had a momentous effect on
both pragmatic commerce and philosophy. The excitement engendered by creating a new and
orderly vision of the world, as well as the need for a philosophy of science which could
encompass the new discoveries, greatly influenced both religious and secular ideas. If Newton
could order the cosmos with natural philosophy, so, many argued, could political philosophy
order the body politic.
RATIONALISM/PHILOSOPHY
POLITICAL THOUGHT
JOHN LOCKE AND THOMAS HOBBES
The seventeenth century saw the birth of some of the classics of political thought, especially
Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan (1651), and John Locke's Two Treatises of Government (1690). They
were basically against the notion of the divine right of the kings, according to which the king
derives his right to rule from the will of God and not from any temporal authority, including the
will of his subjects, the aristocracy, or any other estate of the realm, so that any attempt to depose
the king or to restrict his powers runs contrary to the will of God. Hobbes argued that it is by
natural law and contract that sovereignty is to be transferred to the king or monarch, because it is
ultimately derived from the people and not from the divine right. Locke proposed an even more
democratic view, maintaining that the purpose of authority is to protect human equality and
freedom. According to him, citizens agree to a "social contract" that places an authority over
them, but if that authority ceases to care for their welfare, independence, and equality, then the
contract is broken and it is the duty of the members of society to overthrow the ruler. His Two
Treatises was published shortly after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, clearly reflecting the
political fallout from that event. It had a decisive influence in the occurrence of French
Revolution and in the development of liberalism, democracy, and constitutional governments.
SINGER 2005
The most prominent thinkers associated with the Enlightenment were the French Charles
Montesquieu (1689-1755) and Jean Jacques Rousseau(1712-1778).(Singer 2005 in
Ritzer(2008:10)
MONTESQUIEU
Other political thinkers include Montesquieu (1689-1755) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-
1778). Montesquieu defined three forms of government: Republics, monarchies, and despotisms,
and undoubtedly preferred republics where, according to him, the three governmental powers of
legislative, executive, and judicial are to be separated.
ROUSSEAU
Rousseau's Du contract social (1762) presented his theory of the just state centering on the
general will of the people expressed in the laws.
COUNTER-ENLIGHTENMENT IDEAS
Critiques of the Enlightenment
Critiques from Hume and Kant
In spite of its great contributions to the awareness of human dignity and the development of
science, the Enlightenment apparently had its own limitations. So, from within the tradition of
the Enlightenment, there emerged some notable critiques of the Enlightenment, such as Hume's
skepticism and Kant's critical philosophy. Hume's thoroughgoing empiricism resulted in his
skepticism about causality, thus destroying the rationalistic approach to God and the world. Kant
decided that while pure reason may know the phenomenal world of causation, it cannot know
God, freedom, and afterlife, which can only be postulated through faith in the moral sense of
duty. This way, the claim of reason to sole validity in the Enlightenment started to decline.
Political conservatism
The French Revolution was a political outcome of the Enlightenment. So, its violent extremes
(particularly during the Reign of Terror) fueled a major reaction against the Enlightenment,
which many writers blamed for undermining traditional beliefs that sustained the ancien regime,
thereby fomenting revolution. Counter-revolutionary conservatives such as Irish politician
Edmund Burke (1729-1797), French Jesuit Augustin Barruel (1741-1820), and French writer
Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) all asserted a close link between the Enlightenment and the
French Revolution, as did many of the revolutionary leaders themselves, so that the
Enlightenment became increasingly discredited as the French Revolution became increasingly
bloody. Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) was heavily spiced with hostile
references to the revolutionaries as merely politicized philosophes. Barruel argued, in his best-
selling Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism (1797), one of the most widely read books
of its period, that the French Revolution was the consequence of a conspiracy of philosophes and
freemasons. De Maistre saw the crimes of the Reign of Terror as the apotheosis and the logical
consequence of the destructive spirit of the eighteenth century, as well as the divinely decreed
punishment for it.
ZEITLIN (1990:62) notes that conservatives had idealized the medieval order, and from that
standpoint the morden era was very wanting indeed.
As an antidote to the principles of the Philosophes, and as a critique of the post-Revolutionary
disorder, the conservatives advanced a number of propositions.
ZEITLINS 10 PROPORSALS
Whereas enlightenment thinkers tended to emphasize the individual, the conservative reaction led to a
major sociological interest, in, and emphasis on society and other large scale phenomena.
Society was viewed as something more than simply an aggregate of individuals.
Society was seen as having an existence of its own, with its own laws of dvpmt and deep roots in the
past.
2 society was the most important unit of analysis, it was seen as more important than the individual.
It was society that produced the individual through the process of socialization.
3 The individual was not even seen as the most basic element within society.
A society consisted of such component parts as roles positions r/ships structures & institutions.
Individuals were seen as doing little more than filling these units within society.
4 The pats of society were seen as interrelated and interdependent.
Indeed these interrelationships were a major basis of society.
This view led to a conservative political orientation.
That is becoz the parts were held to be interrelated it followed that tempering with one part could well
lead to the undermining of other parts & ultimately of the system as a whole.
This meant that changes in the social system should be made with extreme care. Led to the proposition
that the society is a system
5 Change was seen as a threat not only to society and its components but also to the individuals in
society.
The various components of society were seen as satisfying peoples needs.
When institutions were disrupted, people were likely to suffer and their suffering was likely to lead to
social disorder. This was a direct reaction to the enlightenment resulting in early sociologists proposing
that change must be evolutionary
6 The general tendency was to see the various large scale components of society as useful for both
society and the individual in it.
As a result there was little desire to look for the negative effects of existing social structures and social
institutions. Thus Comte and Durkheim proposed that the everything in the society is functional and that
the society is a system of interrelated and interconnected parts.
7 Small units such as the family the neighborhood & religious and occupational groups were also seen as
essential to individuals and society. The influence is seen on Durkheims assertion that the family is
functional and that religion unifies people even though he was agnostic.
They provided the intimate face to- face environments needed in order to survive in modern societies.
ZEITLIN( 1990:62) Notes that the conservative legacy greatly influenced thinkers such Saint- Simon,
Comte and later Durkheim.These thinkers attempted to take conservative ideas and concepts out of
their theological reactionary context and to make them part and parcel of a scientific sociology.
FEMINISM
Early feminism developed s a reaction to the ideas of Rousseau and Edmund burke.
For example, Rousseau acc to Zeitlin (1990) postulated that women and men should receive different
qualities of education.
This was criticized by Mary Wollstonecraft who composed her major work, VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS
OF WOMEN(1792).

INDIRECT AND NEGATIVE
IN THIS REGARD THE ARGUMENT IS SIMPLY THAT SOCOLOGY DEVELOPED AS A
REACTION TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT BECAUSE INSTEAD OF ACCEPTING THE
ENLIGHTENMENT AS IT WAS, EARLY SOCIOLOGISTS HAD TO GO AGAINST IT
MAINLY DUE TO THE EFFECTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION WHICH WAS
BELIEVED TO BE A PRODUCT OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT THINKING.

DIRECT AND POSITIVE
EMPIRICISM
Was influential in the development of early sociological theory in France since it was embraced
by Comte hence we see the application of natural scientific methodology to the study of humans
in the society (positivism).
FEMINISM
Early feminism developed s a reaction to the ideas of Rousseau and Edmund burke.
For example, Rousseau acc to Zeitlin (1990) postulated that women and men should receive different
qualities of education.
This was criticized by Mary Wollstonecraft who composed her major work, VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS
OF WOMEN(1792).
RITZER (2008:11) notes that the theorists who were most directly influenced by enlightenment
thinking were alex de toqueville and karl marx, although the latter formed his early theoretical
ideas in germany.