The Enlightenment: The Development Of The Individual Person In 18th Century France

The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement initiated by French philosophes that encouraged the common people of the time to analyse and reason for themselves, rather than accept traditional ideas. This brought about the development of the individual person in eighteenth century France, causing them to question the authority of people such as divine ruler or religious leader. Man began to perceive daily life through his own eyes rather than viewing it through an authoritative figure because of the Enlightenment. These ideas, brought from philosophes and other local thinkers, spread quickly throughout Europe, mainly through places like salons or coffeehouses. Many new ideas and belief systems were spread throughout the continent of Europe
due to more people being able to read and the availability of more books. Prior to the Enlightenment, the majority of readings available to people were religious texts. During this period, many more books were made that were not religious texts. This encouraged people to read, which consequently, caused more and more people to come up with ideas of their own and interpret the texts in their own way. The Enlightenment changed European history and eventually, it changed the rest of the world. The main reasons that the Enlightenment was a major turning point in European history was because of the emergence to a new way of reasoning, greatly affecting man’s perspective in the world of government, religion, the arts, and science.
Before the Enlightenment, in government, people followed divine rulers without questioning their authority.
They did not question the authority of these rulers because the people believed these rulers had the right from God to rule. People believed, “God had established kings as his rulers on earth, and they were answerable ultimately to him alone”(Mckay, 470). People believed that kings were given the right to rule from God and one disputed this until the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment changed the way government was run. During the time before and leading up to the Enlightenment, many European regions were under the rule of an absolute monarch. Most of these governmental officials were very highly educated and were inspired to develop their own ideas. These officials began to have their own ideas about how government should be run: “Encouraged and instructed by these officials, some absolutists rulers tried to reform their governments in accordance with Enlightenment ideals”(Mckay, 529). This led to what historians now call enlightened absolutism. Enlightened absolutism describes the monarchs of the Enlightenment that began to reform absolute monarchy to fit in with beliefs that emerged from the Enlightenment. These reformations eventually lead to major changes in different governments and allowed new forms of governments to surface around the
world.
As more and more of the common people became able to read in eighteenth century France, through readings such as the Bible, they were able to come up with their own ideas rather than listening to a major religious figure.
Prior to the Enlightenment, the majority of men lived their lives blindly following authority. They would follow and obey the commands of their leaders because they were never encouraged to think for themselves. Most of the men at the time were illiterate and were unable to have their own interpretations on texts such as the Bible. All these men could do was listen to whatever Pope or religious leader told them it meant. During the Enlightenment, these men were encouraged to learn how to read for themselves. As this happened, people figured out that what the Bible actually stated differed from what the religious leaders were telling them. These people were then able to form ideas of their own; therefore, they were able to believe what they wanted to believe instead of having to blindly do what they were told. However, this is only a single example of how the Enlightenment changed religion. Along with enlightened absolutism, which reformed many European absolute monarchies, some religious beliefs were reformed as well: “In both catholic and protestant lands, rulers typically fused Enlightenment principles with religion, drawing support from reform-minded religious thinkers”(Mckay, 529). People no longer believed in God’s daily involvement in their life,
which caused a major decline in the churches power. The church was forced to reform its ideas, or lose many of their followers. This is why there were reforms to the church. Although there were religious leaders that believed nothing should change because of these new ideas, there were plenty of leaders who believed that some things should be reformed in religion. The Enlightenment was such a major turning point in history because it was even able to change religious ideas. Prior to the Enlightenment, before the discovery of natural laws, people had believed that every event that occurred, no matter how major or minor, came from the hand of God. Once scientists discovered that natural laws caused these occurrences, people feared God less, and as a result, religious obligations were no longer the primary concern of many people. The Enlightenment caused many people to start to come up with their own ideas, instead of blindly following the will of the religious leaders.
Prior to the Enlightenment, the appreciation of art was only for the highest class of people. Kings frequently commissioned artist to paint their families and their courts. During the Enlightenment, art started to change drastically and started to reflect middle class values. Art in the Enlightenment caused art to attract a broader spectrum of people. An example of this art is The Salon of Madame Geoffrin, painted by Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier. This painting depicts a room full a people inside of a salon during the time of the Enlightenment. The painting represents the epitome of what the Enlightenment is. It shows many people talking and sharing their own ideas. The people who are not talking in the painting are reading non-religious texts for the purpose of learning about new ideas. People found that a good way to express ideas about the Enlightenment was through art. This is why many people in the middle class at that time became interested in art. For this reason, art became much more popular because of the Enlightenment. Not only did it became more popular, but it changed as well. Prior to the Enlightenment, art was only for the upper class, and more importantly, most of the paintings depicted religious scenes. Art was used for much more than just for religious purpose. It was used for the expression of new ideas, which is why it was very important throughout the time of the Enlightenment, and beyond.
Scientists like Isaac Newton also helped bring about the Enlightenment by introducing new ideas that proved natural law was the cause of events that most people believed was the doing of God. Before the time of the Enlightenment, the common person believed that God played a part in every daily activity of his life. Man had no reason to not believe this until scientist began to discover the natural laws that caused these everyday events: “Natural processes appeared to be determined by rigid laws, leaving little room for either divine intervention or human will”(Mckay 744). People no longer accepted the fact that God was the reason that their crops grew or the reason why it rained. Scientists started to come up with physical evidence of how the world worked. Isaac Newton, one of the most important scientists in history, came up with a brand new idea of how gravity and mechanics in the world worked. He was the first scientist to ever think in this way, and he was able to prove that his theories were true. This all happened during the Enlightenment and proved to people that there were other explanations to how the world worked other than believing it was the work of God.
Around the 17th century, the Enlightenment appeared in European society, which brought a new way of thinking and reasoning to man’s perspective in the world in terms of government, religion, the arts, and science. Prior to the 17th century, the common man, who was generally illiterate, blindly followed the authority of whatever religious or governmental ruler was in power. The Enlightenment not only affected European society in the 17th century, it also was a major turning point for the entire world. The world grew and advanced in the realms of science and art quicker than it ever had before. The Enlightenment brought on a new way of thinking to the world, which still affects it in the modern day.