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concept17th-18th century

Enlightenment

Summary

The Enlightenment was the 17th–18th century European intellectual movement that emphasized reason, empiricism, individual rights, and skepticism toward traditional authority. It laid the foundations of modern science, liberalism, and secular humanism.

Core Contribution

Foundational intellectual movement of modernity; produced the philosophical basis for democracy, science, and human rights.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • modernity
  • reason
  • Western philosophy
  • intellectual history

Historical Influences

Scientific Revolution Renaissance humanism

Intellectual Lineage

Scientific Revolution Descartes BaconLocke

Contemporaries & Peers

Romanticism Counter-Enlightenment

Minds Influenced

American and French Revolutionsliberalism science secular humanism

Intellectual Posterity

No conceptual posterity found.

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Enlightenment

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