Age of Enlightenment in Europe, formed in specific historical conditions.It was the reign of the absolute monarchy in France in crisis, and the gap between the economic development and the system of government as well as the tightening of clericalism (the Edict of Nantes was revoked on religious tolerance).The sources of new ideas began scientific world, launched by Newton, as well as an English social philosophy (John Locke, the philosophy of "common sense") and the French free-thinkers and writers such as Pierre Bayle, Descartes and Montesquieu.The ideas of the Enlightenment
primarily made a top priority issue opposites philosophical question of reason and faith, and have put forward as one of the main goals of the cult of human reason and progress.If the British philosopher who belongs to the term "enlightenment" were the so-called armchair theorists character, the French Enlightenment is a real social movement or "party" philosophers.They are fond of politics, have access to the general public and written in French, understood by those who have been trained to read and write.The main principle of the French Enlightenment was a belief in the prevalence of ideas of society.They believed that ideas influence the development of society, and to enlighten society, we must first educate people.
Enlightenment philosophy is inconceivable without this, of course, the brightest of its representative, Francois Voltaire.However, he did not create his own system of philosophy, and was known as a fighter against bigotry and superstition, that's why his famous cry against the domination of clericalism Roman Catholic Church "Crush the vermin!" Survived the centuries.Voltaire was a deist in their views, he believed that the existence of Intelligence in the universe proves the reason and purpose of existence.He also argued against atheism, believing that the denial of God hit the moral and ethical foundations of humanity.Voltaire tried to popularize in France the teaching of Newton's laws of nature, and also criticized the theory of "innate ideas" of Descartes and Berkeley's solipsism.In the theory of knowledge Voltaire relied on Locke and Francis Bacon: knowledge based on experience, but there is absolute knowledge, such as mathematics, morals, and the concept of God.In the field of psychology, philosopher shared fashionable at that time the doctrine that man is a reasonable mechanism without a soul, but with instinct and intelligence.
second absolute authority that created the philosophy of the Enlightenment, Voltaire, and the enemy is Jean-Jacques Rousseau.His most famous works are considered "Reflections on the Origin of Inequality among people", "The Social Contract" and "The New Heloise."Rousseau believed that the main driving force in man is not the reason but the feelings are instincts, conscience and genius.Rousseau criticized contemporary science and industry, assuring that they separate man from nature, creating artificial needs it and alienating people from each other.The task of philosophy - to bridge this gap and make people happy.In the history of Rousseau shared the idea of the "golden age", destruction of private property.Back, of course, is, you can not go back, but you can at least partially correct the situation, concluding a public contract and creating a community of equal rights of small property owners, to decide all questions by referendum.Rousseau was also a theorist of "natural parenting" in the lap of nature, without limiting the scope and religiously adhered to the ideas of personal experience.
Philosophy of Education also presented a galaxy of French materialists - La Mettrie, Helvetius, Holbach, Diderot.Holbach in the "System of Nature" reduced all phenomena to the motion of material particles, and Lamettrie matter linked not only with traffic but also with feelings, suggesting the presence of psychological automatism ("Man - Machine").They also supported the idea of human development from the inorganic "kingdom" through the vegetable and animal.One of the hallmarks of the French materialism of this age is its determinism: everything is subject to universal laws, there is no event, no purpose, just cause and effect.Cognition, in their opinion, based on experience, is converted into thought, and its purpose is to improve human rights.But the main condition for knowledge is the feeling that we are "registering" the world.However, for example, Diderot, unlike Lamettrie, believed that a person in such a system resembles, rather, not the car, and the piano, because it uses a system of signs, as the language (and the signs correspond to keys on the piano).The social philosophy of the materialists held views of rational self-interest, which can cooperate on common interests and so to come to the general interest and morality.
Since virtually all of the known philosopher who gave the world the philosophy of the Enlightenment, agreed among themselves, that common sense and good ideas form a proper social system, they created a project "Encyclopedia", the chief ideologist and administrator of which was Diderot.He managed to bring together all of the Enlightenment as the materialists and deists, so they wrote articles about all the scientific achievements in natural and humanitarian, progressive views combined with criticism of the outdated and give a picture of the human mind in general.This work began with great enthusiasm, but then most of the participants withdrew from the project for reasons of financial and internal character.Left alone, Diderot was able to bring this work to the end and to issue all 52 volumes of the "Encyclopedia", summarizing everything that science has reached the XVII-XVIII centuries.
