Age of Enlightenment European cultural movement of the 17th and 18th centuries The Enlightenment was preceded by the Scientific Revolution and the work of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and others. Some date the beginning of the Enlightenment to the publication of René Descartes' Discourse on the Method in 1637, featuring his famous dictum, Cogito, ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am"). Others cite the publication of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica (1687) as the culmination of the Scientific Revolution and the beginning of the Enlightenment. European historians traditionally date its beginning with the death of Louis XIV of France in 1715 and its end with the 1789 outbreak of the French Revolution. The central doctrines of the Enlightenment were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Church. Important intellectuals[edit] One particularly influential Enlightenment publication was the Encyclopédie (Encyclopedia). Topics[edit] Science[edit]
Ancien Régime This article is about the administrative, judicial, and ecclesiastic structures of the Kingdom of France in the pre-revolutionary period. For a general history of France in this period, see Early modern France. For the political history of France in this period, see Kingdom of France. Much of the medieval political centralization of France had been lost in the Hundred Years' War, and the Valois Dynasty's attempts at re-establishing control over the scattered political centres of the country were hindered by the Wars of Religion. The need for centralization in this period was directly linked to the question of royal finances and the ability to wage war. One key to this centralization was the replacing of personal "clientele" systems organized around the king and other nobles by institutional systems around the state.[1] The creation of the Intendants—representatives of royal power in the provinces—did much to undermine local control by regional nobles. Terminology[edit] France in 1477.
Counter-Enlightenment The Counter-Enlightenment was a term that some 20th-century commentators have used to describe multiple strains of thought that arose in the late-18th and early-19th centuries in opposition to the 18th-century Enlightenment. The term is usually associated with Isaiah Berlin, who is often credited with coining it, though there are several earlier uses of the term,[1] including one by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who wrote of Gegenaufklärung at the end of the 19th century. The first known use of the term in English was in 1908, but Berlin may have re-invented it. Berlin published widely about the Enlightenment and its enemies and did much to popularise the concept of a Counter-Enlightenment movement that he characterised as relativist, anti-rationalist, vitalist, and organic,[2] and which he associated most closely with German Romanticism. Counter-Enlightenment movement vs Enlightenment thinkers[edit] Counter-Enlightenment and Counter-Revolution[edit] See also[edit] Notes[edit]
Two Concepts of Liberty "Positive liberty... is a valid universal goal. I do not know why I should have been held to doubt this, or, for that matter, the further proposition, that democratic self-government is a fundamental human need, something valuable in itself, whether or not it clashes with the claims of negative liberty or of any other goal... What I am mainly concerned to establish is that, whatever may be the common ground between them, and whatever is liable to graver distortion, negative and positive liberty are not the same thing." Isaiah Berlin, Five Essays on Liberty: An Introduction[1] "Two Concepts of Liberty" was the inaugural lecture delivered by the liberal philosopher Isaiah Berlin before the University of Oxford on 31 October 1958. "As for Otanes, he wished neither to rule nor to be ruled—the exact opposite of Aristotle's notion of true civic liberty. ... Summary[edit] Positive liberty[edit] Negative liberty[edit] Abuse of positive liberty[edit] Dialectic of positive and negative liberty[edit]
Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin OM CBE FBA (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas.[1] He was an essayist, conversationalist, raconteur, and lecturer.[1] In its obituary of the scholar, the Independent stated that "Isaiah Berlin was often described, especially in his old age, by means of superlatives: the world's greatest talker, the century's most inspired reader, one of the finest minds of our time [...] there is no doubt that he showed in more than one direction the unexpectedly large possibilities open to us at the top end of the range of human potential".[2] In 1932, at the age of 23, Berlin was elected to a prize fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford. He translated works by Ivan Turgenev from Russian into English and, during the war, worked for the British Diplomatic Service. From 1957 to 1967 he was Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at the University of Oxford. Life[edit] Thought[edit] Gerald C.
Literae Humaniores Literae Humaniores is the name given to an undergraduate course focused on Classics (Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Latin, ancient Greek and philosophy) at the University of Oxford and some other universities. The Latin name means literally "more humane literature", and was in contrast to the other main field of study when the university began, i.e. res divinae, aka theology. Lit. Hum. is concerned with human learning, and Lit. Div. with learning that came from God. Lit. The University of Oxford's classics course, also known as "Greats", is divided into two parts, lasting five terms and seven terms respectively, the whole lasting four years in total, which is one year more than most arts degrees at Oxford and other English universities. The course of studies leads to a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree. Changed in the late 20th century, a strong emphasis remains on study of original texts in Latin and Greek, assessed by prepared translation and by gobbet. Mods[edit] Greats[edit] See also[edit]
Ethology Ethology (from Greek: ἦθος, ethos, "character"; and -λογία, -logia, "the study of") is the scientific and objective study of animal behaviour, and is a sub-topic of zoology. The focus of ethology is on animal behaviour under natural conditions,[1] as opposed to behaviourism, which focuses on behavioural response studies in a laboratory setting. Many naturalists have studied aspects of animal behaviour throughout history. The modern discipline of ethology is generally considered to have begun during the 1930s with the work of Dutch biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen and by Austrian biologists Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch, joint winners of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[2] Ethology is a combination of laboratory and field science, with a strong relation to some other disciplines such as neuroanatomy, ecology, and evolution. The desire to understand animals has made ethology a rapidly growing field. Etymology[edit] Relationship with comparative psychology[edit] Instinct[edit]
Johann Friedrich Struensee Count Johann Friedrich Struensee (5 August 1737 – 28 April 1772) was a German doctor. He became royal physician to the mentally ill King Christian VII of Denmark and a minister in the Danish government. He rose in power to a position of "de facto" regent of the country, where he tried to carry out widespread reforms. Upbringing and early career[edit] Johann Friedrich entered the University of Halle on 5 August 1752 at the age of fifteen where he studied Medicine, and graduated as a Doctor in Medicine ("Dr. His parents moved to Rendsburg in 1760 where Adam Struensee became first superintendent (comparable to bishop) for the duchy, and subsequently superintendent-general of Schleswig-Holstein. Portrait of Struensee, 1770 He was ambitious, and petitioned the Danish government in the person of Denmark’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count von Bernstorff for funds. Physician to King Christian VII[edit] Struensee received the appointment in April 1768. Rise to power[edit] H.
Enevold Brandt Count Enevold Brandt (1738 - 28 April 1772) was a Danish courtier. Notes[edit] References[edit] "Brandt, Enevold, Count".