The were the of the 18th-century European Enlightenment.Kishlansky, Mark, et al. A Brief History of Western Civilization: The Unfinished Legacy, volume II: Since 1555. (5th ed. 2007). Few were primarily philosophers; rather, philosophes were public intellectuals who applied reason to the study of many areas of learning, including philosophy, history, science, politics, economics, and social issues. They had a critical eye and looked for weaknesses and failures that needed improvement. They promoted a "Republic of Letters" that crossed national boundaries and allowed intellectuals to freely exchange books and ideas. Most philosophes were men, but some were women.
They strongly endorsed progress and tolerance, as they distrusted organized religion (most were Deism) and feudalism.Richard Hooker, "The Philosophes," (1996) online Many contributed to Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie. They faded away after the French Revolution reached a violent stage in 1793.
Between 1740 and 1789, the Enlightenment acquired its name and gained support in the highest reaches of government despite heated conflicts between the philosophes and state and religious authorities. Although philosophe is a French word, the Enlightenment was distinctly cosmopolitan; philosophes could be found from Philadelphia to Saint Petersburg. The philosophes considered themselves part of a grand "republic of letters" that transcended national political boundaries. In 1784, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant summed up the program of the Enlightenment in two Latin words: sapere aude, "dare to know", meaning, dare to think for yourself. The philosophes used reason to attack superstition, bigotry, and religious fanaticism, which they considered the chief obstacles to free thought and social reform. Voltaire took religious fanaticism as his chief target: "Once fanaticism has corrupted a mind, the malady is almost incurable" and that "the only remedy for this epidemic malady is the philosophical spirit".
Enlightenment writers did not necessarily oppose organized religion, but they strenuously objected to religious intolerance. They believed that a society based around reason instead of religious fanaticism would improve the way people think and culminate in a more critical, scientific outlook on social issues and problems. The philosophes believed that the dissemination of knowledge would encourage reform in every aspect of life, from the grain trade to the penal system. Chief among their desired reforms was intellectual freedom—the freedom to use one's reason and to publish the results. The philosophes wanted freedom of the press and freedom of religion, which they considered "natural rights" guaranteed by "natural law." In their view, progress depended on these freedoms.L. Hunt, "The Making of the West" Volume C, Bedford St. Martins, 2008, p. 556
Scholars differ concerning whether the word should be applied to all Enlightenment thinkers or be restricted to only the French philosophers.L.G. Crocker, "Interpreting the Enlightenment: a political approach", Journal of History of Ideas 46 (1985), pp. 211-30 Historian Peter Gay, for example, uses it to apply to all Enlightenment philosophers "from Edinburgh to Naples, Paris to Berlin, Boston to Philadelphia".Peter Gay, The Enlightenment - An Interpretation 1: The Rise of Modern Paganism'', (1995) p. 3.
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