ENLIGHTENMENT AND REVOLUTION
Voltaire
When Sir Isaac Newton culminated the Scientific Revolution
by developing his universal law of gravitation elaborated as a
principle of scientific observations systematically analyzed within
frameworks of known science and mathematics, he provided a scientific
way of problem-solving which could be generalized to other scientific
questions. It was not long before a number of thinkers began to
believe that you could use the methods of science to understand
social, economic, and political worlds as well, thereby giving
birth to the social sciences. With the emergence of proto-social
sciences, many thinkers, especially in France and England, began
to develop political theories that stipulated that it was possible
to produce better societies than those of European monarchs if
only "man" used reason, the ability to think and analyze.
Most of these thinkers believed that monarchies were antithetical
to freedom because they depended upon traditional values and understandings
which had to be accepted without questioning. Thus, though they
varied on exactly what kind of government would be best, many
Enlightenment thinkers believed that the kind of freedom necessary
to produce rational thought could only be found in a republic,
which they believed depended upon rational debate within a growing
public sphere. By the end of the Eighteenth Century, republican
thinking and ideology became a significant element of political
theory and struggle in the world defined by the Atlantic Ocean.
Since not all Latin American thinkers and leaders were convinced
that a republic was suitable for Latin American countries, the
republics that have formed in many of these countries like Brazil
have been rather unstable.
One German philosopher, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), was particularly
articulate in defining enlightenment in an essay called "What
Is Enlightenment?" Kant did not really believe that he lived
in an "enlightened" age, but he believed that enlightenment
was possible if individuals used what little freedom they had
to employ their reason to answer questions themselves. The biggest
danger to society, he believed, was accepting the authority of
others, of believing what people have said and written without
questioning it. For Kant, "Have the courage to use your own
reason!" was the motto of the Enlightenment.
It has been almost 200 years since Kant wrote this piece, and
we still have a tendency to accept the authority of others and
to believe what people have said and written about a specific
topic without questioning it. Hypermedia, and a project like this
one, has the advantage of demonstrating how history is constructed,
what gets included and what gets left out. This project itself
would have pleased Kant because you have to make your own choices
to go through it. You have to decide when and where you want to
click on a topic to learn more. You cannot simply accept the narrative
and argument that I have laid out here because of its weblike
structure and the multiple ways you can navigate through this
history. The lesson in this webpage is not unlike some of the
simple lessons Kant tried to teach in "What Is Enlightenment?"
"Question authority!" "Don't be afraid to know!"
"Have the courage to use your own reason!"
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