Answer to Question #314943 in Sociology for Sifundo

Question

The age of Enlightment was a revolution in human thought. It promoted scientific skepticism and intellectual interchange. The Enlightment period had a significant influence on culture, politics and on government.

 

In light of the above, critically discuss the impact of the Enlightment on modern society.

                                                                                                                                (100 marks)

 

In your essay, you are expected to:

·      Explain the Age of the Enlightment period. What were the main ideas of the Age of Enlightment? What new ideas about society and human relations emerged in the Enlightment.

 

·      Engage in critical discussion on Immanuel Kant’s thoughts on the Enlightment and its underlying philosophies.

 

·       Assess and determine how the Enlightment changed social ideas and practices on today’s modern society. How did Enlightment ideas influence society and culture, politics and government.

Answer 1

a) The Age of Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries with global influences and effects. The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on the value of human happiness, the pursuit of knowledge obtained by means of reason and the evidence of the senses, and ideals such as liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. The Enlightenment has its roots in a European intellectual and scholarly movement known as Renaissance humanism and was also preceded by the Scientific Revolution and the work of Francis Bacon, among others.

Central to Enlightenment thought were the use and celebration of reason, the power by which humans understand the universe and improve their own condition. The goals of rational humanity were considered to be knowledge, freedom, and happiness. The new ideas that emerge in the Enlightenment were methods or natural science should be user in everyday life, scientific method, and progress.

b) Kant believes that Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. His comprehensive and systematic work in epistemology (the theory of knowledge), ethics, and aesthetics greatly influenced all subsequent philosophy, especially the various schools of Kantianism and idealism. Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why such a large part of mankind gladly remain minors all their lives, long after nature has freed them from external guidance. They are the reasons why it is so easy for others to set themselves up as guardians. The fundamental idea of Kant's “critical philosophy” is human autonomy. He argues that the human understanding is the source of the general laws of nature that structure all our experience; and that human reason gives itself the moral law, which is our basis for belief in God, freedom, and immortality.

c) The Enlightenment was marked by an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy. The core ideas advocated by modern democracies, including civil society, human and civil rights, and separation of powers, are the product of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment helped combat the excesses of the church, establish science as a source of knowledge, and defend human rights against tyranny. It also gave us modern schooling, medicine, republics, representative democracy, and much more. The Enlightenment brought political modernization to the west, in terms of focusing on democratic values and institutions and the creation of modern, liberal democracies. Enlightenment thinkers sought to curtail the political power of organized religion, and thereby prevent another age of intolerant religious war.