This change in outlook was rendered possible due to progress of science and its new laws and methods. During this period effort was made to translate the advances of science into a new philosophy and world view. The thinkers of this involved themselves in revaluation of all aspects of society and established a rational faith. Thus they tried to lay the foundations of systematic disciplines of social sciences.
The spirit of reason which pervaded this age left a deep impact on literature, music and fine arts ushered in neoclassicism in literature and music. In the field of art it resulted in the abandonment of the grandiose. Baroque and more dainty Rococo styles in favour of pure neoclassical style.
It may be observed that all the leaders of the Enlightenment were not cast in the same mold, yet they all possessed ideas and attitudes which were quite distinct from the earlier as well as the later thinkers. One of the outstanding feature of their thinking was ‘rationalism’. Under the impact of this rationalism they were confronted with the problem of reconciling old faiths with new truths and thus created a sort of crisis in European conscience’.
One of the earliest leaders of the Enlightenment was Rene Descartes, the famous French philosopher. He tried to reconcile the medieval religious faith with the mechanistic world in which supernatural phenomena, were impossible and everything had to be explained rationally.
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Therefore, he took a mathematical and rational view of the world and doubted everything. However, he perceived that he could not doubt that he existed or that there was something besides himself. On the basis of these two premises he rationally constructed a universe, God and an immortal soul for himself.
His universe was a mechanical one, which rigidly obeyed the laws of matter and motion proclaimed by Galileo and others and which could be easily understood by anyone who understood geometry. Desecrate in his Discourse on Method tells us that he constructed his rational universe in one day-and that his ideas were not based on experience, but spun out of his own inner consciousness. Still his Cartesian was widely accepted.
Descartes left a deep impact on Baruch Spinoza (1632-77) who also tried to reconcile spirit and matter. However, he rejected dualistic system of Descartes and following his methods build a mathematical philosophy in Ethics (1663). He was essentially a spiritual person and has been described as the God-intoxicated man.
On the other hand, Francis Bacon (1561-1626), another prominent representative of the age of Enlightenment and a lawyer, tried to learn the truth by observation and experiment. According to Prof. Swain “both types of minds were necessary for the advancement of science and learning.
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The carthesian rationalists were devastatingly critical of accepted beliefs and practices, but the Baconian observers and experimenters provided solid knowledge that an experimental method which enable men to learn something really new. The rationalists could then use the new knowledge as the basis of new generalizations and new beliefs.”