The Separate Circles of Society The Enlightenment was a movement of thought and belief concerned with the interrelated ideas of God, reason, nature, and man that claimed wide assent among the intellectuals in 17th and 18th century Europe. It attacked the fundamental beliefs and practices of European society. Although the Enlightenment was diverse in emphasis and interests, those who followed it tenets were convinced that right reason could discover useful knowledge, aspiring to the conquest of mans happiness through freedom. It would affect science, religion and social thinking of society. Enlightened science contributed to society by the destruction of the wide domain of medieval errors in method. A byproduct of this was experimental reasoning, which could be used to solve all of mans problems. In religion it would cause such division and strife that the effects of debate are still felt even today. For during this period there would arise Deism and Materialism. The notion of the essential goodness of man, Humanitarianism, and Atheism. There would arise a conflict between reason and passion. European society was grounded on the aristocratic elite. The Aristocracy possessed a wide variety of inherited legal privileges which were established by the government. It was also heavily influenced by the Catholic and Protestant churches. The medieval sense of rank and degree was still persistent and became more rigid through the course of the century. The aristocracy was intimately related to the state, and was the head of the social hierarchy. Under them was an urban labor force, and rural peasantry, both subject to high taxes and feudal dues. The most striking feature of this period was the marked contrasts in the lives and experiences of people in different social standing, which varied by country, and even by region. Each state was based on regions of smaller communities. There were no individual rights as we in the modern world perceive t...
