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English Literature: Age of Enlightenment (Reason)

A guide for academic English Literature and related literatures.

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  • Voltaire, pseudonym of François-Marie Arouet
  • Montesquieu, in full Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  • Denis Diderot
  • John Locke
  • Thomas Hobbes
  • Condorcet, Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet
  • Jeremy Bentham
  • Thomas Paine
  • Thomas Jefferson
  • René Descartes
  • Francis Bacon
  • Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish Mikołaj Kopernik, German Nikolaus Kopernikus
  • Sir Isaac Newton
  • Galileo, in full Galileo Galilei
  • Immanuel Kant
  • David Hume
  • Martin Luther
  • Mary Wollstonecraft, married name Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin

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What is the "Age of Reason/Enlightenment"?

Enlightenment, French siècle des Lumières (literally “century of the Enlightened”), German Aufklärung, a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries in which ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and humanity were synthesized into a worldview that gained wide assent in the West and that instigated revolutionary developments in artphilosophy, and politics. Central to Enlightenment thought were the use and celebration of reason, the power by which humans understand the universe and improve their own condition. The goals of rational humanity were considered to be knowledge, freedom, and happiness.

A brief treatment of the Enlightenment follows. For full treatment, see Europe, history of: The Enlightenment.

Works Cited

"Enlightenment." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, 18 Aug. 2021. academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Enlightenment/32680. Accessed 3 Jan. 2025. 

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Philosophy Section Catalog Numbers

The following LC classification schedule B1-B5802 provides an organizational scheme for material relating to philosophy.

 

Subclass B

B1-5802 Philosophy (General)

B69-99   General works

B108-5802 By period, Including individual philosophers and schools of philosophy

B108-708   Ancient

B720-765   Medieval

B770-785   Renaissance

B790-5802  Modern

B808-849    Special topics and schools of philosophy

B850-5739   By region or country

B5800-5802  By religion

 

Subclass BC

BC1-199  Logic

BC11-39  History

BC25-39  By period

BC60-99  General works

BC171-199  Special topics

 

Subclass BD

BD10-701  Speculative philosophy

BD10-41    General philosophical works

BD95-131   Metaphysics

BD143-237  Epistemology.  Theory of knowledge

BD240-260  Methodology

BD300-450  Ontology, Including being, the soul, life, death

BD493-701  Cosmology, Including teleology, space and time, structure of matter, plurality of worlds

 

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