PRELUDE: After seven centuries—from 11th to 18th century—because of thinkers, philosophers and scientists, the Europeans witnessed the age of Enlightenment. But the world of Islam from 13th century to the present day lost its progress, because there was no development in philosophical and scientific knowledge. This article is a continuum first four articles on History of Knowledge. Together they throw light on the progression of knowledge in the West, which is life and soul of today’s Western Civilization.    Knowledge multiplies by the principle of reciprocity ~ Ashraf

A History of Knowledge-Explosion — Part V

Second Explosion: THE ENLIGHTENMENT 

Summary: After the first explosion of knowledge that emerged in Athens of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and many other Classical Greek philosophers, the second explosion occurred in northern Europe at the end of the wars of religion and the rise of Galilean science. Starting from the eve of French Revolution and all through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, an era of Enlightenment emerged. Many great scientists and philosophers helped create an ‘age of genius and new knowledge.’ Some of the best-known thinkers were Newton, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Voltaire, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, and many more, who made an everlasting mark on the history of knowledge. They explored the implications of the new sciences, humanities, and religious upheaval, which led them to reject many traditional beliefs and ways of seeking knowledge. Seeds of Enlightenment, sown in the seventeenth century, flourished into a period of revolutions and explorations. Most importantly it created a revolution of mind, which sought to reconstitute ethics of morality on rational basis instead of spirituality. Scientific attitude of rational inquiry replaced the previous intellectualism of thought and action. It shaped the idea that the methods and concepts of science should be applied in all domains of inquiry. This change became the key to Enlightenment which put human beings, more firmly important than ever before, at the center of the whole universe. The Enlightenment quest was driven by the belief that entirely on their own, human beings can know all that needs to be known, and in knowing understand, and in understanding gain the power to choose more wisely than ever before. The fusion of natural science and philosophy resulted in the Enlightenment ideals that placed highest value on scientific inquiry, reason, human natural rights, liberty, equality, freedom of thought and expression, and on diverse worldviews. MIRZA ASHRAF

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