High Enlightenment

Historical Context and Chronology

The High Enlightenment is often distinguished from both an earlier phase of Enlightenment thought (late 17th to early 18th century) and a later phase that shades into Romanticism and counter-Enlightenment movements. While dating varies among historians, many place the High Enlightenment between about 1740 and 1780.

Historically, this period corresponds to:

• the reign of Frederick II (Frederick the Great) in Prussia,
• the latter part of the Ancien Régime in France,
• the growth of the British Empire and debates over colonialism,
• and the lead-up to the American and French Revolutions.

Intellectually, it marks the moment when earlier rationalist and empiricist developments (from figures like Descartes, Locke, and Newton) were synthesized and popularized by a self-conscious community of writers, often called the philosophes. These thinkers sought not only to analyze the world but to reform institutions in light of what they regarded as universal principles of reason and nature.

Key Themes and Intellectual Projects

A defining project of the High Enlightenment was the attempt to systematize and disseminate knowledge. The French Encyclopédie, edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert, became the emblem of this ambition. More than a reference work, it advanced a critical perspective on religion, politics, and social hierarchy, while promoting crafts, sciences, and secular learning.

Several interrelated themes stand out:

1. Reason and Critique
   High Enlightenment thinkers emphasized reason (raison, Vernunft) as the primary tool for understanding nature and society. They engaged in critical examination of:

   • Revealed religion and church authority
   • Hereditary monarchy and noble privilege
   • Traditional legal and penal practices

   Proponents argued that rational scrutiny could uncover unjust institutions and superstitions, paving the way for reform. Critics, then and later, contended that this confidence in reason underestimated the role of tradition, emotion, and religious commitment.

2. Natural Law and Natural Rights
   Building on earlier natural law theories, the High Enlightenment sharpened debates about natural rights, such as liberty, property, and religious toleration. These ideas informed early human rights discourse and influenced constitutional documents in North America and Europe. Yet the application of these rights was often limited; discussions of slavery, colonial subjugation, and gender inequality revealed tensions between universalist language and restricted social practice.

3. Religion, Deism, and Skepticism
   Many leading figures adopted deistic or skeptical positions. They tended to affirm a rational creator or natural order while rejecting miracles, clerical authority, and confessional dogma. Some argued for a morality based on human nature and sociability rather than revelation. Opponents saw this as the erosion of religious foundations of social life, while defenders claimed it represented a more tolerant, less dogmatic spirituality.

4. Progress and Perfectibility
   The idea of progress—in science, morals, and social organization—gained unprecedented prominence. Thinkers speculated about the perfectibility of the human species through education, rational legislation, and economic development. Enthusiasm for progress coexisted with anxieties about corruption, luxury, and the moral effects of commerce, leading to debates over whether modern societies necessarily improved on ancient ones.

5. Political Reform and the Public Sphere
   The High Enlightenment coincided with the expansion of a public sphere of salons, coffeehouses, journals, and reading societies. Philosophers and pamphleteers engaged broader audiences than ever before. They discussed:

   • Separation of powers and constitutional constraints
   • Religious toleration and civil liberties
   • Penal reform, including opposition to torture and excessively harsh punishments

   While some advocated moderate enlightened absolutism, others argued for more participatory or republican forms of government. This diversity has led historians to resist treating the High Enlightenment as a single political doctrine.

Major Figures and Regional Variations

Although a pan-European phenomenon, the High Enlightenment took distinctive forms in different regions.

France is often considered its epicenter:

• Voltaire criticized clerical power and religious intolerance, defended civil liberties, and popularized Newtonian science.
• Diderot combined materialist tendencies with a critical stance toward monarchy and church, contributing essays on philosophy, aesthetics, and politics.
• Rousseau, often seen as both central to and critical of the Enlightenment, reflected on inequality, education, and popular sovereignty. His emphasis on sentiment and critique of luxury made him a transitional figure toward later Romantic currents.

In Britain, the period saw:

• The maturation of Scottish Enlightenment thought in figures like David Hume, Adam Smith, and Adam Ferguson, who investigated human nature, moral sentiments, and commercial society.
• The beginnings of utilitarian reflection in Jeremy Bentham, who, though more fully a figure of the later 18th century, drew on High Enlightenment concerns with rational legislation and the greatest happiness principle.

In German-speaking Europe:

• The period prepared the way for the critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant, whose early works fall within the High Enlightenment timeframe.
• Debates about Aufklärung (enlightenment) interacted with religious reform and the policies of rulers like Frederick the Great, often under the label of enlightened absolutism.

In North America, High Enlightenment ideas influenced:

• Founding figures such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison, who drew on European discussions of natural rights, social contract theory, and religious toleration.
• Revolutionary-era debates about sovereignty, representation, and the legitimacy of colonial rule.

These regional variations show that the High Enlightenment was not monolithic; it comprised overlapping, sometimes conflicting, approaches to reason, religion, and reform.

Legacy and Critiques

The High Enlightenment’s legacy is visible in:

• modern liberal constitutionalism,
• discourses of human rights and toleration,
• the institutionalization of scientific inquiry and secular education,
• and continuing expectations that public policy should be subject to rational criticism.

However, the period has also been the target of wide-ranging critiques. Romantic and counter-Enlightenment thinkers contended that High Enlightenment rationalism neglected history, culture, and feeling. Later critics argued that universalist claims masked Eurocentric, colonial, and patriarchal assumptions. Twentieth-century philosophers and social theorists debated whether Enlightenment reason contributed to technological domination and bureaucratic control, or whether such developments represented a betrayal rather than a fulfillment of Enlightenment ideals.

Contemporary scholarship often treats the High Enlightenment as a contested heritage: a source of influential ideas about autonomy, critique, and rights, as well as a historically situated movement shaped by the social hierarchies and imperial contexts of its time. Rather than a single coherent doctrine, it is now commonly understood as a dense, diverse cluster of projects and debates that continue to inform philosophical and political discussions in the present.