Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos

Enlightenment: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  Encyclopædia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Also Known As Aufklärung • Age of Reason • siècle de Lumières
Date c. 1601 - c. 1800
Location Europe

Photos and Videos

Isaac Newton
Life-sized plaster sculpture Seated Voltaire by Jean-Antoine Houdon shows Voltaire draped in a robe, seated with a thoughtful expression and a ribbon crown, against a dark background.
Galileo
Montesquieu
Voltaire
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Declaration of Independence
Aristotle
Francis Bacon
philosophes: Encyclopédie
A vintage encyclopedia page shows small type and scientific illustrations. The question What was Enlightenment? is written in old-fashioned blue lettering.
Reign of Terror
See All Videos and Images →

Related Topics and References

Topics
Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Key People

Friedrich Nicolai, oil painting by A. Graff.
Friedrich Nicolai
German writer
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
British author, philosopher, and statesman
John Locke
John Locke
English philosopher
Profile portrait of Immanuel Kant facing right, framed by a green Ouroboros serpent forming an oval, with a geometric symbol below the frame.
Immanuel Kant
German philosopher
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Swiss-born French philosopher
Life-sized plaster sculpture Seated Voltaire by Jean-Antoine Houdon shows Voltaire draped in a robe, seated with a thoughtful expression and a ribbon crown, against a dark background.
Voltaire
French philosopher and author
Oval portrait print of Montesquieu by Pierre Michel Alix after Jean Francois Garnerey, showing Montesquieu with long curly white hair and a fur-trimmed robe, facing forward.
Montesquieu
French political philosopher
Portrait of Jeremy Bentham, English social reformer and philosopher, shown with thinning hair, wearing a high-collared shirt and dark coat, looking slightly to the side.
Jeremy Bentham
British philosopher and economist
Fontenelle, Bernard Le Bovier, sieur de
Bernard Le Bovier, sieur de Fontenelle
French author and scientist
default image
Wojciech Bogusławski
Polish dramatist

Causes and Effects

Causes
  • Methods and ways of thinking developed during the scientific revolution of the 15th through 17th centuries
  • Renaissance humanism, which rediscovered Classical literature and culture
  • The Reformation and its undermining of the Roman Catholic Church's authority
Effects
  • The belief that human history is a record of progress
  • The emergence of Romanticism in the late 18th century
  • The first modern secularized theories of psychology and ethics
  • The idea of society as a social contract
  • The understanding of the universe as a mechanism governed by discoverable laws
  • The use and celebration of reason
Read More: The Enlightenment Causes and Effects

Related Quizzes

Vikings. Viking warriors hold swords and shields. 9th c. AD seafaring warriors raided the coasts of Europe, burning, plundering and killing. Marauders or pirates came from Scandinavia, now Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. European History
European History