Enlightenment

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The Enlightenment

1685-1815

"Why are things the way they are?" 

Explain that this painting is a typical painting from the Englightenment.. In Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp, we see one person's brain moving another person's body. The intellectual Dr Tulp is using an instrument of science and knowledge to cause a dead arm to move itself upwards, and thus to seem alive.

The light illuminating the anatomy demonstration in Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp represents, perhaps, what is usually deemed to be the great period of intellectual Enlightenment that was just beginning.

How does this painting reflect
the Enlightenment movement?

Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving A Lecture at the Orrery

This reflects the Enlightenment because we look at someone who is demonstrating a scientific experiment, in this case an orrery. Thinkers fomr the Enlightenment believed in science and reason to explain the world around them.

Can you name any famous Enlightenment
thinkers / philosophers?

The thinkers of the Enlightenment, influenced by the scientific revolutions of the previous century, believed in shedding the light of science and reason on the world in order to question traditional ideas and ways of doing things. The scientific revolution (based on empirical observation, and not on metaphysics or spirituality) gave the impression that the universe behaved according to universal and unchanging laws (think of Newton here). This provided a model for looking rationally on human institutions as well as nature.

The thinkers of the Enlightenment, influenced by the scientific revolutions of the previous century, believed in shedding the light of science and reason on the world in order to question traditional ideas and ways of doing things. 

The scientific revolution (based on empirical observation, and not on metaphysics or spirituality) gave the impression that the universe behaved according to universal and unchanging laws (think of Newton here). This provided a model for looking rationally on human institutions as well as nature.

The Enlightenment explained