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    French, Enlightenment

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    Dhanashri Ninawe

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    French, Enlightenment

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    Dhanashri Ninawe
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    french, enlightenment

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    8 views2 pages

    French, Enlightenment

    Uploaded by

    Dhanashri Ninawe

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    The emergence of sociology as a scientific discipline can be traced to that period of European

    history, which saw such tremendous social, political and economic changes as embodied in the
    French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. This period of change in European society is known
    as the Enlightenment Period as it embodies the spirit of new awakening in the French philosophers
    of the eighteenth century.

    The Enlightenment refers to an intellectual movement, primarily in France and Britain, that spans
    approximately one hundred years from the 1680s to 1789.

    The Enlightenment Period marked a radical change from the traditional thinking of feudal Europe. It
    introduced the new way of thinking and looking at reality. Individuals started questioning each and
    every aspect of life and nothing was considered sacrosanct - from the church to the state to the
    authority of the monarch and so on.

    The roots of the ideas, such as the belief that both nature and society can be studied scientifically,
    that human beings are essentially rational and that a society built on rational principles will make
    human beings realize their infinite potentials, can be traced in the development of science and
    commerce in Europe.

    In Old Europe The classes were distinct and clearly demarcated. Religion formed the corner stone of
    society. The religious heads decided what was moral, what was not. Family and kinship were central
    to the lives of the people. Monarchy was firmly rooted in society. The king was believed to be
    divinely ordained to rule over his people

    The New Europe ushered in by the two Revolutions, the French and the industrial, challenged each
    and every central feature of old Europe. Classes were recognised. Old classes were overthrown. New
    classes arose. Religion was questioned. Religion lost its important position. Family loyalties gave way
    to ideological commitments. The position of women changed. And finally monarchy was
    overthrown. Democracy was heralded in. The central concepts of society, namely, religion,
    community, power, wealth, etc. were all taking on new bearings and new implications.

    Enlightenment writers include Hobbes, Locke, Diderot, Montesquieu, and Rousseau – the French
    writers were sometimes called the philosophes. The leading representatives were religious skeptics,
    political reformers, cultural critics, historians and social theorists

    The writings of the Enlightenment profoundly affected politics and the development of sociology

    The slogans of “liberty, equality, fraternity” and “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” state the
    political ideals of these revolutions and reflect the ideas of Enlightenment thought.

    One of the major influences on western thought, and an important Enlightenment writer was Jean
    Jacques Rousseau
    Rousseau was critical of existing society, claiming that “private property brought about war, conflict,
    and thus the need for a civil state”

    Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1799) was an English author and feminist, who wrote The Vindication of
    the Rights of Woman (1792), one of the first great feminist documents.

    Montesquie

    Rousseau

    French revolution

    Ideas of enlightenment like freedom liberety right of men and the govt fair treatment …most of
    them originated in france

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