Arguably the most important facet to consider when one is examining the social and cultural developments within the European Enlightenment is the rise of the public sphere. What gave rise to what many historians now regard as the birth of the modern middle class in Europe is debated to be the result of numerous factors. Continue Reading
The ideological movement that developed in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, known universally as “The Enlightenment”, had a significant impact on the struggle for American independence. The ‘American Enlightenment’ combined an engaging political scene with a proactive military objective for sovereignty, creating a revolutionary war that was unparalleled in scope or ferocity in Continue Reading
There has been debate as to why the English are neglected in studies of Enlightenment. Marsak, in his ‘The Enlightenment’ presents no readings from English writers and Erick Cassirer does not help either by omitting such English thinkers as Bentham, Paine and Adam Smith from his ‘The Philosophy of the Enlightenment’. Against this tide stands Continue Reading
