sdsffdfsfsfThe Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority. Developing in Germany, France, Britain, the Netherlands, and Italy, the movement spread through much of Europe, including Russia and Scandinavia. The signatories of the American Declaration of Independence, the United States Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen were motivated by "Enlightenment" principles (although the English Bill of Rights predates the era).[citation needed] This period is also known as the Age of Reason.
The intellectual and philosophical developments of that age (and their impact in moral, social, and political reform) aspired towards greater rights & liberties for common people based on self-governance, natural rights, natural law, central emphasis on liberty, individual rights, reason, common sense, and the principles of deism. These principles were a revolutionary departure from theocracy, autocracy, oligarchy, aristocracy, and the divine right of kings. For modern counterparts to oligarchy and monarchy, or other forms of individual, social, religious, and economic tyrrany, see totalitarianism, national socialist German Workers Party, democratic centralism, Leninism, Stalinism, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.) The Enlightenment marks a principled departure from the Middle Ages, State & Church mandated oppression, toward an era of rational human discourse, freedom of religion, liberty, scientific advancement, and modernity.[1]
Political Achievements of the Enlightenment: French historian and political writer, Alexis de Tocqueville, called attention to the significance of constitutional decentralization in the United States [see constitutional and republic.]- the separation of powers into three relatively independent centers, the...