Enlightenment (the ideological movement in the 17-18 centuries) is based on the belief that in the knowledge of that natural order, which corresponds to the true nature of society and man, the mind and science play a decisive role. Enlighteners considered religious fanaticism, ignorance and obscurantism to be the cause of human disasters. Being opponents of the feudal-absolutist regime, they advocated civil equality and political freedom.
French enlightenment received its vivid expression in 1715-1789, and it is no coincidence that this period was called the "Age of Enlightenment" (siècle des lumières). It brought together progressively minded representatives of art, naturalists, philosophers, lawyers and others.
French enlightenment of the 18th century created a fundamentally new idea of the relationship between the state and man, the priorities and main guidelines of the modern enlightened individual, his ethical responsibility as the bearer of the highest authority - the mind.
In France in the 18th century, with the development of bourgeois relations and the strengthening of trade, feudalism became a relic, manifesting itself only in the class structure of society. The bourgeois, unlike their predecessors, believed that the implementation of shifts for the better is possible only through the use of such a powerful measure as enlightenment - mastery of knowledge, an education that will correctly orient the mind and relieve prejudice.
French enlightenment has become the most significant phenomenon in Europe. For his supporters, the role of reason was higher than faith, they opposed absolutism, the church, for freedom of thought and artistic creation. In this period, the self-consciousness of the bourgeoisie is actively formed.
Since the 30-40s. The 18th century, with the first wave of the enlightenment movement, aesthetic and philosophical disputes began to acquire great sharpness and sharpness. Since 1757, at the regular Salon in Paris, various works of art began to be demonstrated, providing food for heated discussions.
The philosophy of French enlightenment, which appeared more often in brilliant literary form, is distinguished by its radical social and anti-clerical orientation.
The French enlighteners Voltaire and Montesquieu are considered the "patriarchs" of enlightenment in France, who laid the foundation for it until the end of the 1940s. remained its leaders, then losing the stage to a new generation. Montesquieu was not destined to see its heyday (60-70 gg.), However, Voltaire in these years enjoyed great respect and popularity.
Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Holbach, Didro, Helvetius, Dalamber - these are the great people who were able to carry out a grandiose plan - to create a multi-volume "Encyclopedia", which combined the functions of educating citizens, propaganda of science, singing creative work. Encyclopedists, as enlighteners were called, sharply criticized the state order, religion, old views on society and nature. Without the extremely important rational grain contained in their teachings, neither liberalism, nor democracy, nor 19th-century socialism would be unthinkable.
Enlightenment is considered a kind of human utopia having a powerful real content. French enlightenment is precisely the greatest human utopia. Its fundamental feature of worldview and doctrine is utopianism and illusion. Classical educators did not imagine the reasons, conditions and consequences of their activities, which is why they set great, but ultimately unrealizable, unattainable goals.
The classicity of the enlightenment model presupposes its uniqueness and a certain uniqueness, however, it was the principles of its French model that became the measure, the criterion of any other similar movement. The French Enlightenment became the exponent of all that is common to this process as a phenomenon of world culture.