The Enlightenment- Attitudes of Society

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The Enlightenment- Attitudes of Society

The Enlightenment brought about fundamental changes of thought in society.1 Philosophes such as Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau sought changes in society for the good of humanity. In addition to basic changes in society, the enlightenment brought about changes in thought in the areas of religion and science, the government, and the view of women.

During the enlightenment, basic changes occurred in society. The philosophes helped bring about freedom of thought and speech, two freedoms which we often take for granted today. People became more educated, as a "print culture" emerged. Journals, newspapers and books were beginning to be widely available to the general public. This had both negative and positive impacts. The literate and illiterate became divided, and the illiterate poor only became poorer. However, the "print culture" did create the influential social force of public opinion. Writers wrote what their audiences wanted to hear, and that translated into a governmental awareness of public opinion. Governments tried to regulate and censor books, but they could not ignore the public’s criticisms of the government. The changes in society created a general sentiment of self-interest. People wanted to promote their happiness and welfare, and they were "confident and optimistic that they could discover natural law and perfect worlds." Sometimes, there was an "exaggerated belief in the perfectibility of man," such as in the sciences, which were still in early stages.2

The conflict between religion and science was one of the major issues of the enlightenment. New theories were being developed (like Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation) which went against the teachings of the c...

... middle of paper ...

... thought were developed, governments were changed, and even though the philosophes were not really feminists, society’s views of women were changed, with the help of Mary Wollstonecraft.

End notes

1. Snyder, Louis L. The Age of Reason. (NY: VanNostrand Reinhold Co, 1955), 13.

2. Snyder, 8.

3. Snyder, 8-11.

4. Scheider, Isidor. The Enlightenment: Culture of the 18th Century, (NY: George

Braziller, Inc, 1965), 19.

5. Cody, David. "Deism." The Victorian Web.

http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/religion/deism.html.

(10 April 00).

6. Susan Gubar, "Feminist Misogyny: Mary Wollstonecraft and the Paradox of 'It Takes One

to Know One," Feminist Studies, 20 (Fall 94): 455.

7. D.R. Woolf, "A Feminine Past? Gender, Genre and Historical Knowledge in England, 1500-

1800." American Historical Review, 102 (June 97), 667-668.

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