Submitted by Madhura Sawant

I. Introduction

The movement of enlightenment played an important role in the development of social theories. Enlightenment became a landmark period in the world history because it led to a remarkable development and brought in certain significant alterations in the intellectual development and philosophical thought. In the 17th century the two intellectual currents of the enlightenment were philosophy and science (Ritzer,2011).

II. The Social, Economic and Political forces of enlightenment.

The 15th century Europe started witnessing a significant cultural movement called renaissance. This cultural movement affected the European intellectual life. There was a search for realism and humanist methods were used to understand the social world. For instance- Man became the measure of all things. The influence of renaissance was seen in art, literature, music and political science etc.

The period of renaissance saw many new intellectual pursuits, because of its emphasis and reliance on observation and inductive reasoning- it led to various discoveries and innovation- this paved the way for scientific revolution. It started at the end of renaissance period and went up till the 18th century. One of the significant aspects of scientific revolution was that science came in the forefront, it was now recognized as an autonomous discipline that had utilitarian goals. Scientific revolution marked the separation of the church and the state.

The intellectuals during the enlightenment movement emphasized on human reasoning. There was a greater importance on establishing truth through empirical evidences rather than through studying religious sources.

The emerging scientific ideas challenged the ideas of traditional authority and further tried to establish new theories and practices which were scientific in nature. Intellectuals were trying to understand the social world by applying the laws of the natural world. This led to the emergence of social sciences wherein the laws of the nature were used to explain the social world.

According to George Ritzer (2011), the enlightenment movement saw the following significant changes-

• A number of traditional ideas and believes based on religious sources were overthrown and replaced during enlightenment.

• The emphasis of enlightenment was on producing grand, general and abstract systems of ideas that were based on rationality.

• The enlightenment was marked by the torch bearers of the enlightenment period that people could comprehend and control the universe by means of reason and empirical research.

• The enlightenment philosophers rejected beliefs in traditional authority, traditional values, institutions and they categorized them to be irrational, that is contrary to human nature and inhibitive of human growth and development.

It was the enlightenment thought that led to the foundation of French revolution.

III. Bibliography

Ritzer, G. (2011). Sociological Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Rakhi N, S. N. (2011). Foundations Sociological Theories. Calicut: Univeristy of Calicut.

Submitted by Madhura Sawant

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