Emergence of Modern Europe - Essay Example

?EMERGENCE OF MORDERN EUROPE Introduction The 18th century Europe witnessed enlightenment movement, which was an intellectual revolution. At this time, many people preoccupied themselves in seeking true knowledge. Many people were by enlightened by scientific revolution hence they began to use reason to understand life. Enlightenment people advocated for the application of the scientific method to understand issues in life. Borrowing from Newton’s methods, they argued that they could use reason to find laws that govern human society. This movement came to a climax in the 18th century after as series of intellectual development that had began in the 17th century. The age of enlightenment, also known as age of reason refers to the period of intellectual awakening known as enlightenment (Lindberg 2008 p. 18). It was a time of scientific awakening largely dominant in Europe. From the viewpoint of socio-political phenomena, enlightenment period is believed to have started close with the thirty years of wars and came to an end after the French revolution. This period called for use of reason as a means of developing and establishing an authoritative system of ethic, government, religion, and aesthetics, which will give human beings an opportunity to attain objective truth about reality of this world. The enlightenment thinkers believed that reason would salvage man from religious authoritarianism and superstition that had brought suffering, misery, and death to many people in religious wars. In addition, knowledge was made available to the masses through encyclopedias, which led to enlightenment cause of educating human beings. The age of enlightenment just like the renaissance and protestant reformation, had a profound impact on society. The European States turned towards science between 1700s, which led to focus of life as experience of human being. By doing so, the enlightenment period influenced greatly on modern western European States. There were developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, and anatomy during that time that were successfully applied to medicine, astronomy, and mechanics. The usage of these ideas motivated a sense of western emergence into contemporary or modern time that had real and precise technological knowledge of this world. The philosophers at that time argued that science provided scientific method as general view of life. Popularization of science During enlightenment period, popularization of science led to growth and change in society in that individuals in the 18th century adhered to new codes of sociability and enjoyed equitability in society. Women who took part in the enlightenment debate were seen as enhancing and promoting enlightenment ideas in the public arena. In addition, they were viewed as civilizing force determined to overthrow the old totalitarian regime (Bowler 2009, p. 89). The spread of enlightenment ideas across Europe was enhanced by production of cheap books by renowned philosophers such as Diderot and Voltaire. Scientific inventions like works of Isaac Newton and Copernicus changed mathematical philosophy of Europe in that people realized the need of creating new and orderly world and the need for integrating philosophy of science that would help in transformation of secular and religious life. People argued that if Newton was able to order the cosmos using his natural philosophy, it would also be possible to order the politics using political philosophy. During this, time people adopted new ways of ordering things based on divine right and natural law. Using divine rights, it led to creation of absolutist ideas while natural law would enhance liberty to human race. Some people argued that the universe was ordered by rational God and therefore, his representatives on this world had powers of God. This according to such thinking meant that Gods’ power translated to the powers of the monarchy. Natural law rose to react against such thinking of divinity with the aim of creating new order in society. They argued that God did not govern or rule arbitrarily but he did so through the natural laws that he enacted on earth. This was followed by the arguments from Thomas Hobbes who was an absolutist in the government and he mostly drew his arguments from leviathan. Thus, natural law took its own life whenever it was invoked (Hicks 2010, p. 43). This followed that if natural law could be instead used to bolster the monarchy position, then it could similarly be used to assert the rights of that subject in the monarch. The two theories had one thing in common, as they wanted need for a comprehensible and an orderly functioning government. Catherine the Great from Russia was among the few enlightened despots that relied on facts that based on pragmatic invocation of the State power, which would hold back the chaos and anarchic rebellion and warfare. She refuted the facts based on mystical appeals towards any authority. Standardization and regulation were the best things one could have as they made the State to reach its ultimate power outwards over the entire domain. Furthermore, they aided to liberate the people from endless local customs and expanded sphere of social and economic activities (Lindberg 2008, p. 88-89). Therefore, standardization, rationalization, and search for the fundamental unities, occupied most of the enlightenment and the associated arguments that focused on proper methods and the nature of understanding. The efforts from enlightenment overshadowed divine right idea and alteration of the world with the help of god’s hands. These ideas: economics from Adam Smith, evolution pursued proposed by Goethe, declaration of inalienable rights by Jefferson and Antoine Lavoisier’s physical chemistry (Trefil 2007, p. 34). This formed the basis of overthrowing the idea of comprehensive universe and complete rationality. It later led to the ideas of Hegel’s metaphysics and search for romanticism emotional truth. Skepticism about religion Individuals who existed during enlightenment period knew more ideological differences than similarities, and the existence of various schools of thoughts that had diverged ideas. Though having divergent ideas, the various schools of thought had similar ideologies. The most striking conflict arose in theology and during the past periods, there had been a splinter about the Catholic Church. This was in contrary to the previous schism, which had a large political control of papacy, but was along doctrine lines that focused on the Protestants and the Roman Catholic. Theology later became debatable with various schools of thought attempting to create their viewpoints to be rationale and were later employed and used. Philosophers such as Spinoza searched for knowledge related to metaphysics of ethics (Gallagher 1995, p. 56). These ideas could influence transcendental searches and pietism, which would be similar to those that Immanuel Kant proposed. Religion directly linked the rise of nation state, which related to earlier enlightenment. During the renaissance and the medieval periods, the state was restricted due to need to work via the host of the intermediaries. The system arose due to poor communication, whereby localism thrived with the return for maximum loyalty to central organizations (Zuckerman 2011, p. 21). Due to improved transport system, navigation, organization and influx of silver and gold from conquest and trade, made the state to assume more power and authority. The response that coincided this, was a series of related theories on purpose and limits of the state power. The enlightenment accepted absolutism and countered the reactions that related limitations that proposed by various philosophers such as John Locke who later influenced other philosophers like Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. During this period, these issues explored in respect to issues that were necessary for proper relationships of the country’s citizens towards monarchy and state. Various ideas arose during this period for instance the idea about contract between individuals and the society, and whether this related to the state or the society. Various philosophers such as Rousseau, Hume, Jefferson, and Montesquieu advocated this idea (Nielsen 2011, p. 54). Later, assertions had that nationality had a basis that was beyond preference. Philosophers like Johann Gottfried von herder alluded to the idea from Greek philosophies that language had a more decisive influence on thought and cognition and that any text or book was open to exploration based on the deeper connection of an idea called hermeneutics. The focus of his scholarship was to understand the deeper meaning of the bible. Concepts on contract between citizen and the state and the nation’s reality influenced democracy, liberalism, and constitutional government, which later followed (Schellenberg 2007, p. 18). Conclusion In conclusion, the western society changed drastically between 1300 and 1850. During this time, western civilization, form, and concepts that tried to shape the modern world affected western civilization. From today’s world characteristics, demonstrate that the worldview has adopted experiences from the renaissance through the period of enlightenment. The modern world is humanistic and secular as its dynamics thus human realities determine it, which centers on needs of physical existence. Nowadays, the world continues to feature nation state as the basic political form. However, the nation state has undergone numerous modernizations for a period of time to reflect the attachments from western world on individuals popular will and civic liberty. Thus the commercial economics is the world’s recognized medium of exchanging goods. The western world relies on demystified view on natural world and human and continues to upgrade science, reason, and technology. From the western world, positive change, meant for self-improvement, is a way of being part of the modern world. Furthermore, the modern sense of change is teleological. Thus, the similarities, chronologies, and contributions from these movements assert that in history progress is complex. Therefore, the western world is alleged to have arisen from renaissance, Protestants reformation, similarities, and complexities in mind, enlightenment, and scientific revolution. Enlightenment is the most identifiable means that led to knowledge on western understanding of the world. References Bowler, P 2009, Science for all: The popularization of science in early twentieth-century Britain, University of Chicago, Chicago. Gallagher, M 1995, What are they saying about unbelief?, Paulist Press, Boston. Hicks, J 2010, Between faith and doubt: Dialogues on religion and reason, Palgrave Macmillan, Boston. Lindberg, D 2008, The beginnings of western science: The European scientific tradition in philosophical, religious, and institutional context, prehistory to A.D. 1450, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Nielsen, K 2011, Naturalism and religion, Prometheus Books, New York. Schellenberg, J 2007, The wisdom to doubt: A justification of religious skepticism, Cornell University Press, Boston. Trefil, J 2007, Why science, Teachers College Press, New York. Zuckerman, P 2011, Faith no more: Why people reject religion, Oxford University Press, London. Read More