The Heroic Figures Who Have Enlightened the World
Part 2: The Age of Enlightenment
Part 3: The Ascended Masters | Part 1: The Roll Call
by Scott Mowry
THE AGE OF ENLIGHTMENT
The Age of Enlightenment produced an astounding array of philosophers, political thinkers, scientists, physicists, mathematicians, authors, writers, artists and musicians, that the world had ever seen.
This time period also fostered two great movements of people rising up to throw off the shackles of tyranny in the form of the American Revolution of 1763-1783 and the French Revolution of 1789-1799. The founding of the United States of America contributed greatly toward a major shift in the emancipation of the people from oppression, as it created a nation that openly tolerated religious and political freedom.
The Age of Enlightenment also saw the creation of three great sacred documents in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America (pictured above) and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in France. And it is no coincidence that since the Revolutionary war, France and the United States of America have been firm and loyal allies, both pledging to come to the aid of the other in times of crisis.
The peoples of both America and France, share the notion that liberty and freedom are God-given rights that must be steadfastly adhered to and duly defended. And it is absolutely foolhardy not to realize that the country of France and its people have been the United States of America's greatest ally throughout its history. (Freedom fries be damned!)
During the Age of Enlightenment arose some of the greatest minds and thinkers the world has ever known, such as philosophers like Rene Descartes, Immanuel Kant, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Locke and Thomas Hobbes
And political statesmen such as America's own George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Thomas Paine, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, who were some of the principle architects of the aforementioned Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.
Writers were also highly influential during this time period as well, such as Sir Francis Bacon (the real William Shakespeare), Voltaire and Joseph-Alexandre-Victor Hupay de Fuveau.
Some of the greatest music ever created was during this time period from giant figures within the classical music genre such as Ludwig Van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and George Frideric Handel, among many others. It is believed that Handel wrote the most inspiring single musical composition ever in, "Handel's Messiah."
In addition, great scientists came from this ear such as Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton, who forever changed man's relationship to his surroundings, the Earth and the Universe.
Indeed, we have not seen a period of time like the Age of Enlightenment, however, it would seem by all measurements that we are about to enter, or have already entered, a second great period of enlightenment that may fully flower in the year 2012.
THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT FACTS:
TIME PERIOD: mid-1600's to late 1700's (approximately)
THE SACRED DOCUMENTS and GREAT WORKS:
• The United States Bill of Rights
• The Declaration of Independence
• The Constitution of the United States of America
• Declaration of The Rights of Man and of the Citizen
• William Shakespeare catalogue
• Ludwig Van Beethoven musical catalogue
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart musical catalogue
• "Handel's Messiah"
THE PRINCIPAL FIGURES:
• Thomas Abbt (1738–1766) – German mathematician, writer.
• John Adams (1735_1826) American statesman, founding father, 2nd President of the United States of America.
• John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) – American diplomat, politician, 6th President of the United States of America.
• Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717–1783) – French mathematician, physicist.
• Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626) – English philosopher, statesman, author.
• Balthasar Bekker (1634–1698) – Dutch divine and author.
• Pierre Bayle (1647–1706) – French philosopher, writer.
• Cesare Beccaria (1738–1794) – Italian philosopher, politician.
• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) – German composer, pianist.
• George Berkeley (1685–1753) – Also known as Bishop Berkeley, philosopher
• Justus Henning Boehmer (1674-1749) – German ecclesiastical jurist.
• James Boswell (1740–1795) – Scottish lawyer, diarist, author.
• G.L. Buffon (1707–1788) – French naturalist, mathematician, biologist, cosmologist, author.
• Edmund Burke (1729–1797) – Irish parliamentarian, political philosopher.
• James Burnett Lord Monboddo (1714-1799) – Scottish judge, scholar of language evolution, philosopher.
• Marquis de Condorcet (1743–1794) – French philosopher, mathematician, political scientist.
• Ekaterina Dashkova (1743–1810) – Russian, major figure of the Russian Enlightenment.
• José Celestino Mutis (1755-1808) – Spanish botanist, mathematician.
• Denis Diderot (1713–1784) – French founder of the Encyclopédie.
• Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) – American statesman, scientist, political philosopher, pragmatic deist, author.
• French Encyclopédistes – French group of 18th century writers who compiled the Encyclopédie.
• Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657–1757) – French author.
• Joseph-Alexandre-Victor Hupay de Fuveau (1746-1818) – French writer, philosopher.
• Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) – English historian.
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) – German writer, polymath.
• Olympe de Gouges (1748–1793) – French playwright, political activist, feminist.
• George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) – German Baroque composer.
• Joseph Haydn (173 –1809) – Austrian composer.
• Helvétius (1715–1771) – French philosopher, litterateur.
• Johann Gottfried von Herder (1749–1832) – German theologian, linguist.
• Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679) – English philosopher.
• Baron d'Holbach (1723–1789)– French author, encyclopaedist, Europe's first outspoken atheist.
• Robert Hooke (1635–1703)– English curator of Experiments for the Royal Society.
• David Hume (1711-1776) – Scottish historian, philosopher, economist.
• Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) – American statesman, political philosopher, educator, deist, 3rd President of the United States of America.
• Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos (1744–1811) – Spanish neoclassical statesman, author, philosopher and main figure of the Age of Enlightenment in Spain.
• Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) – German philosopher, physicist.
• Hugo Kottataj (1750–1812) – Polish Catholic priest, social & political activist, political thinker, historian, philosopher.
• Ignacy Krasicki (1735–1801) – Polish author, playwright, journalist, encyclopedist, translator.
• Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794)– French noble, father of modern chemistry, prominent in histories of chemistry and biology.
• Gottfried Leibniz – (1646–1716) – German polymath, inventor of Calculus.
• Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) – German dramatist, critic, political philosopher.
• Carl Linnaeus (1707 - 1778) – Swedish botanist, physician, zoologist.
• John Locke (1632–1704) – English philosopher.
• Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765) – Russian polymath, scientist and writer,
• James Madison (1751–1836) – American statesman, politician, author, founding father, 4th President of the United States of America.
• Sebastião de Melo, Marquis of Pombal (1699-1782) – Portuguese statesman.
• James Monroe (1758–1831) – American statesman, diplomat, founding father, 5th President of the United States of America.
• Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro (1676–1764) Spanish neoclassical monk, scholar noted for encouraging scientific thought.
• Montesquieu (1689–1755) – French social commentator, political thinker.
• Leandro Fernández de Moratín (1760–1828) – Spanish dramatist, translator, support of republicanism and free thinking.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) – Austrian prolific & influential composer.
• Nikolay Novikov (1744–1818) – Russian philanthropist, journalist.
• Dositej Obradovic (1742–1811)– Serbian author, philosopher, linguist.
• Thomas Paine (1737–1809) – English/American pamphleteer, revolutionary, radical, inventor, intellectual.
• Francois Quesney (1694–1774) – French economist of the Physiocratic school.
• Thomas Reid (1710-1796) – Scottish philosopher, founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense.
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778) – Swiss political philosopher.
• William Shakespeare (1564–1616) – English poet, playwright.
• Mikhailo Shcherbatov (1733–1790) – Russian ideologue, exponent of the Russian Enlightenment.
• Adam Smith (1723–1790) – Scottish economist, philosopher.
• Baruch Spinoza (1632–1672) – Dutch philosopher.
• Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) Swedish scientist, philosopher, Christian mystic, theologian.
• Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859) – French political thinker, historian.
• François-Marie Arouet (pen name Voltaire) (1694–1778) – French Enlightenment writer, essayist, deist, philosopher.
• George Washington (1732–1799) – American General, 1st President of the United States of America, architect of the US Constitution.
• John Wilkes (1725–1797) English radical, journalist, politician
• Christian Wolff (1679-1754)– German philosopher.
• Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) British writer, philosopher, feminist.
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Heroic Figures Part 3: The Ascended Masters continues on Page 3
Part 3: The Ascended Masters | Part 1: The Roll Call
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