The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that stressed reason, science, individual rights and skepticism of traditional authority.
Historical proponents:Voltaire, Immanuel Kant, Nicolas de CondorcetThe ideals of reason, individual rights and progress should guide modern society.
Nothing is sent anywhere.
Thinkers such as John Locke, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Immanuel Kant and Adam Smith argued that people could use reason to understand the world and improve society. They challenged absolute monarchy and religious authority, and championed freedom of thought, religious tolerance, the separation of powers and natural rights.
Those ideas helped inspire the American and French revolutions and shaped modern liberal democracy, written constitutions and the scientific method. Debate continues about the movement’s legacy, including its blind spots on slavery, colonialism and the status of women.
Influential figures in the 12 axes thinker pool who advocated, analyzed or shaped ideas around this concept.
French writer & polemicist · 1694–1778
A French writer who used satire and essays to attack religious persecution and arbitrary justice, and who admired England’s toleration and commerce.
“The Philosophical Letters hold up English experiment and inoculation as models, and his satire attacks inherited superstition.”
German philosopher · 1724–1804
A philosopher from Königsberg who argued that the moral law binds all rational beings, wrote Perpetual Peace in 1795, and held that lasting peace needs republics joined in a league of states.
“Treats history as moral progress toward a republican, peaceful order and enlightenment as leaving self-imposed immaturity.”
French mathematician & philosopher · 1743–1794
A French mathematician and revolutionary who backed equal rights for women, the abolition of slavery and free public schooling, and who wrote of human progress while hiding from the Terror.
“The Sketch argues that human progress has no fixed limit and that moral and political institutions can be perfected.”
Real cases that people point to when they use the word.
The US Declaration of Independence (1776) and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789) draw directly on Enlightenment ideas.
Montesquieu’s argument for the separation of powers influenced many written constitutions.
The Encyclopédie, edited by Diderot and d’Alembert, aimed to gather and spread knowledge.
Reasonable people disagree about this. These are the strongest points made on each side.
The test asks about it in a statement. Your answer moves one axis score.
Agreeing that Enlightenment ideals should guide modern society moves your score toward the Progressive side of the Progressive vs Traditional axis, because it puts reason and individual rights ahead of inherited custom.
Which way agreeing pushes the score
Agreeing with a statement about the Enlightenment moves your score toward Progressive.
Something else on your mind? Get in touch
Three statements gave you a first reading. The full test scores all twelve axes and finds your closest countries and ideologies.