An era of philosophical and intellectual upheaval that swept over Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries is known as the Age of Enlightenment. It was a time when reason, science, and individual liberty were passionately embraced by the masses, upsetting established authority and opening the door for contemporary administration and ideas. The Renaissance, a time of resurgence in the interest in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, is where the Enlightenment began. Instead of only depending on religious doctrine or antiquated writings, this Renaissance inspired a spirit of inquiry and a desire to comprehend the universe by reason and observation.

What is enlightenment?

Thirty-two years after the first volume of the Encyclopedia produced by French philosophers Diderot and D'Alembert was released, philosopher Immanuel Kant provided a response to this topic in his research paper published in 1784. Denis Diderot (1713-1784) was not an ordinary personality, as he was a French philosopher, writer, and art critic. A strong advocate for freedom of thought, religious tolerance, and social reform, he was the principal editor of the Encyclopedia (Encyclopédie in French),   a monumental 28-volume work that sought to compile all human knowledge. Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717-1783), who co-edited the Encyclopédie with Diderot, primarily focusing on scientific and mathematical articles, was a French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher.  

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), a German philosopher who is widely considered one of the most influential figures in modern Western philosophy, perhaps found out that the Encyclopédie edited by Diderot and D'Alembert lacked the detailed definition of enlightenment. He opens his paper titled “What is Enlightenment?” with the paragraph that reads, “Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) "Have the courage to use your own understanding" is, therefore, the motto of the Enlightenment. "Enlightenment, he says, is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. The immaturity issue is that of a kid who needs a priest to teach him which God he must worship, whose moral precepts he must uphold, and a master to instruct him on what to believe and what to do.”

Although the Enlightenment was a European occurrence, it did not develop in the same manner or with the exact chronology in different European countries. In England, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and Portugal, the historical, political, religious, economic, and cultural contexts were noticeably different, so literature and other ideas did not develop or spread in the same way. Talking about The Renaissance in French literature, the years from 1715 until 1789 are most interesting.  in France, the 17th century with the reign of Louis XIV, ending in 1715 and then  passing on to the 18th century, a geographical and institutional framework was a centralized state, a government form that was an absolute monarchy and a single religion. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 made France a country believing entirely in Catholicism. Therefore, to understand the Renaissance in detail, a quick historical tour of the three great reigns of the 18th century, the end of Louis XIV’s reign, then Louis XV’s reign which began with the important period of the Regency because Louis XV was a child when he became king under the care of a regent, and then when he majored, his period of power as King Louis XVI, would be interesting to take. Finally, the last years of the century, from the 1789 French Revolution onwards, the ones that really changed the history, marks a captivating time that sees the transition from an old world to a new world and emergence of a galaxy of famous authors. 

Throughout the century number of social, religious, and political issues emerged one after another, which stirred the masses from every nook and corner of France,  were crucial and responsible for the spreading of the French Enlightenment ideas. The religious conflicts among Protestants and Catholics resulted in banning Protestantism, but an internal conflict within the Catholic Church that broke out about a sect known as "Jansenism" made large impacts on French religious society.  Whereas economic hardships during Louis XIV’s reign were  a never-ending crisis, the absolute monarchy was experiencing a tug-of-war between upholding age-old frameworks and aspirations for reforms. A very interesting part for the enlightenment to happen was that the monarchy wanted reforms, and therefore the King encouraged the writers and went on to establish publishing houses and, at the same time, in a contradictory way, tried to control what was being written by implementing a censorship policy where authors had to clarify under which framework they produced their works.

In order to understand what kind of social turmoil was going on in the 18th century France, three works are of utmost importance, namely, Fenelon’s Les Aventures de Télémaque (Adventures of Telemachus), which sets the base for the enlightenment, Montesquieu's Lettres Persanes (Persian Letters), which records the end of Louis XIV’s reign and the Regency in a satirical manner, and Memoirs (Memories) of the Duke de Saint-Simon, who records the minute details of Louis XIV’s reign.

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