The Enlightenment: European & Spanish Context, Philosophy, and Impact
The Enlightenment: European Context
The late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries witnessed profound changes across all aspects of European society. Originating in England and primarily driven by the bourgeoisie, this transformative period is collectively known as the Enlightenment. It championed critical thinking, elevating reason and experience as the sole paths to knowledge. The scientific spirit flourished, with prominent British scientists and philosophers like Isaac Newton, John Locke, Adam Smith, and Thomas Hobbes making significant contributions. In France, an influential generation of intellectuals emerged, including Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Montesquieu. It was also in France that the first Encyclopédie, compiled by Denis Diderot, appeared, often considered a catalyst for the French Revolution.
Historical Context in Spain
The early eighteenth century in Spain was marked by the question of succession following the death of Charles II without an heir. The primary contenders for the throne were Philip of Anjou and Archduke Charles. After a bitter War of the Spanish Succession, Philip of Anjou ascended to the throne as Philip V. As an absolute monarch, Philip V nonetheless facilitated the entry of Enlightenment thought and British and French ideas into Spain. Several reforms were promoted in Spain during the eighteenth century, but they met with limited success due to opposition from the clergy, the nobility, and even the common people. The populace, still deeply rooted in tradition and influenced by the Church, maintained a Counter-Reformation spirit resistant to British and French ideas.
Philosophical Context of the Enlightenment
Philosophically, the Enlightenment era was characterized by empiricism and naturalism. The Enlightenment was defined by its critical, analytical, and self-critical stance: a rigorous analysis of reality stemming from the application of reason to all domains of human knowledge (religious, ethical, political, scientific, and social). This led to a re-evaluation of all previously accepted social values, precipitating a crisis of European consciousness.
Key Characteristics of Enlightenment Philosophy
Indeed, this century marked a profound shift in worldview; its unwavering critique contributed to significant social and cultural transformations. Immanuel Kant sought to permanently and completely separate the realms of reason and faith. However, he distinguished between theoretical (scientific) rationality and practical (moral) rationality, the latter allowing for moral claims such as the immortality of the soul.
A key feature of the Enlightenment, pertinent to this discussion, was its secularizing tendency: it aimed to resolve the tension between reason and faith by reducing faith to a rational basis, often leading to deism. This does not imply that the Enlightenment was inherently anti-theological or anti-religious (though some figures, like Voltaire, were); rather, religious phenomena were increasingly analyzed and justified through reason. “True religion is the rational and reason is the true revelation.”
The 18th century was also characterized by naturalism, which optimistically asserted that nature could be fully comprehended by reason, thereby challenging supernatural explanations.
Empiricism and its Thinkers
Empiricism asserted the impossibility of transcending the phenomenal order to establish a first cause. It went so far as to declare abstract concepts as mere verbal entities, positing sensible intuition as the sole source of knowledge and denying an autonomous role for reason in the act of knowing, as knowledge was deemed dependent on sensory experience. Consequently, we only know phenomena.
However, the radicalism of empiricism varied among individual thinkers. For instance, while John Locke believed religion and its tenets could be reconciled with rationality, David Hume, by contrast, leaned towards agnosticism, bordering on atheism.