What was the "Enlightenment"?

Cultural, spiritual, philosophical, political and societal movement beginning around the 15th century, that placed the individual human being with special emphasis on his capacity for thought, as the center piece of responsibility for the development of the shared human condition within and across societies.

Embodied especially in artistic and philosophical works, applied to politics and governance, the seed of the scientific and industrial revolutions, and with a celebrated connection to ancient cultures.

Some enlightenment personae in no particular order: Erasmus, Montaigne, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Luther, Da Vinci, Kepler, Descartes, Galileo, Brahe, Newton, Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, Montesquieu, De Tocqueville, Kant, Hegel, Clausewitz, Smith, Mill. (I just realised I'm not going to try and list everyone who deserves to be included, I do not have the capacity for that task)

I think it's fairly arbitrary, but there is a certain kind of loss of innocence from there on out in western philosophy, Marx, Nietsche, Weber, Schmidt and Arendt for example are hard to place in the same sphere with those above. In my mind a key task of philosophy now is to find a new connection to this lost innocence of free flowing unburdened thought from previous centuries, kind of the way these classic enlightenment figures sought connection with the ancient world.

The discovery of the unconscious mind of psychology and neurology is a complete new frontier in itself, and definitely marks out the beginning of a new phase in philosophy and society. Great many things are changing and a new enlightenment maybe about to begin right now.

Reply to Existoic

Thank you, that is a very interesting perspective.

What form would you want a new Enlightenment to take? What form do you think a new Enlightenment is likely to take?

Beliefs are for the greater part socially programmed. Human beings think act and live in accordance with the instinctual imperative 'to belong'. The intellectual paradigm, shifts in a general sense when pre-existing alternate thinkiing (thought or ideas that are valid but not generally accepted) begins to gain a momentum as such, and begins to ursurp the thought that is general or current or mainstream.

Enlightenment in its purest form refers to the invididual capacity to initiate and to think thoughts that are independent of the herd. Those who think independently posses the capacity for enlightened thought.

Should they persist with their independent thought, should they present it and promote it, and should it begin to take hold within the psyche of others, an Enlightenment of sorts has been potentiated. Should that thought ursurp the general, and become the new paradigm, the period of time this process occurs within, is referred to as The Enlightenment.

The next general Enlightenment (in my own estimation) will occur when the general concept of 'wealth' evolves from the material to the transcendental.