The Enlightenment
Reason, evidence and criticism are turned on religion, custom and authority.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 74 years
- Known to
- ± 10 years
- Era
- Early Modern, Holocene
Across the eighteenth century, writers including Voltaire, Montesquieu, Hume, Diderot, Rousseau and Kant argue for religious toleration, freedom of expression, separation of powers and government by consent, and attack censorship, torture and slavery. Diderot's Encyclopédie, from 1751, deliberately assembles all knowledge in accessible French. The movement is not uniform and contains real contradictions, notably on race and on women.