54 - The Enlightenment

Ok, I need to step back for an episode, and step away from the narrative of the English colonies in North America, which I really want to talk about, and instead spend a bit of time talking about one of the most important intellectual parts of the early modern era, because this whole intellectual trend really influences everything that happens in the next few episodes.  It’s really the ideas of the Enlightenment that drive the whole Modern era, actually.  The Enlightenment is every bit as important as the Renaissance or Reformation, historically, and it’s more important in terms of shaping the ideas, values, and society of the Modern Era.So that brings up the obvious question of, ‘What is the Enlightenment, anyway?’ And why is it called that?  What lights came on?  Another term that is used to describe this era is ‘The Age of Reason,’ which seems a little cocky to me, like the people before this era had not been reasonable, or not using their brains or something.  The Greeks and the Romans had themselves made a big deal of Reason, and using Reason to explore truth and how things worked. But something did change in the 1700’s.  Well, several things.  And we’ll look at some of them this episode.  Website:  shortwalkthroughhistory.comemail:  [email protected]