In every age, some people became enlightened, or educated and open-minded. But in Western history, just one period of time has been called the Enlightenment.
How did it get the name? The Enlightenment, which reached its high point in the mid-1700s CE, was a time when thinkers and writers found new ways to look at the world. They challenged traditional ideas of government, religion, education, and what it meant to be human. Instead of accepting those old ideas, they stressed reason and individual thinking. In fact, the time is also called the Age of Reason. The Enlightenment followed a period of remarkable expansion of knowledge, which is called the Scientific Revolution. How did the Scientific Revolution pave the way for the Enlightenment? Read on.
