Positive Effects Of The Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment originated during the 1650s and lasted all the way until the 1780s. Including philosophers such as Francis Bacon, John Locke, and Rene Descartes, it encouraged the people to be educated, and to use their reason and knowledge to challenge authority. It was during this time that not only did Enlightenment philosophers write many eye opening and thought provoking books, but also the reference manuals like the Encyclopedia was immensely advanced during this rise of reasoning. Along with the positive effects of the Enlightenment, there was also an emergence of a deadly side effect. While encouraging the people to use knowledge to challenge authority, the philosophies of the Enlightenment inadvertently destroyed the stronghold
According to historian Jonathon Israel, “until the 1650s Western civilization was based on a largely shared core of faith, tradition and authority” (Israel, 2002). These Enlightenment ideas, he argues, were what “caused the change that eventually led to the revolutions of the latter half of the 18th century and the early 19th century” (Israel, 2002). However, Roger Chartier, another historian of the Enlightenment Era, had a different opinion on Enlightenment. In his book, The Cultural Origins of the French Revolution, he claimed “that the Enlightenment was only invented after the fact for a political goal,” and that “the leaders of the French Revolution created an Enlightenment canon of basic text, by selecting certain authors and identifying them with The Enlightenment in order to legitimize their republican political agenda” (Chartier, 1991). Still another historian, Bertrand Russell, says the enlightenment was simply a “phase in progressive development, which began in antiquity, and that reason and challenges to the established order were constant ideals throughout that time”