The Enlightenment
启蒙运动

The Age of Enlightenment is the era from the 1650s in which cultural and intellectual forces in Western Europe emphasized reason, analysis and individualism rather than traditional lines of authority. It was promoted by philosophes and local thinkers in urban coffee houses, salons and Masonic lodges. It challenged the authority of institutions that were deeply rooted in society, such as the Catholic Church; there was much talk of ways to reform society with toleration, science and skepticism.
启蒙时代从17世纪50年代开始。西欧的文化和知识力量开始注重理性、分析和个人主义，而非传统的权威。这场运动是由“启蒙思想家”以及在市井咖啡馆、沙龙和共济会中的当地思想家所发起的。他们挑战并质疑深深植根于社会的权威，如天主教会；也出现了许多用宽容、科学、怀疑的态度来改革社会的讨论。

The Enlightenment operated in most European countries, but often with a specific local emphasis. For example in France it became associated with anti-government and anti-Church radicalism, while in Germany it reached deep into the middle classes and expressed a spiritualistic and nationalistic tone without threatening governments or established churches. Although Enlightenment thinkers generally shared a similar set of values, their philosophical perspectives and methodological approaches to accomplish-ing their goals varied in significant and sometimes contradictory ways. In his famous essay What is Enlightenment？ (1784), Immanuel Kant described it simply as freedom to use one's own intelligence. More broadly, the Enlightenment period is marked by increasing empiricism, scientific rigor, along with increasing questioning of religious orthodoxy.
启蒙运动席卷了欧洲大多数国家，但通常都在某一特定的区域有不同的侧重。比如在法国，它同反政府与反教堂的激进主义联系起来，但是在德国，它深入中产阶级，并在不危及政府和教会的前提下表达了唯心主义和民族主义的诉求。尽管启蒙思想家们大体上有着共同的价值观，但他们的哲学视角以及实现目标的方法论却有着极大的差异，有时甚至相互冲突。在康德那篇著名的《什么是启蒙》(1784)一文中，他只是将其简单地描述为个人思想的自由。而从更广泛的意义上来说，启蒙时代是以逐渐兴盛的经验主义、严谨的科学精神以及对正统宗教日益加深的质疑为标志的。