Definition: The
Enlightenment was a set of intellectual,
religious, scientific, social, and ultimately political
revolution(s) with competing Radical and moderate
components (and reactionary counter-Enlightenment
elements) from mid-17th through the 'long 18th'
centuries in the European and trans-Atlantic worlds
especially. The broader Enlightenment recovered ancient
Greek and medieval Islamic Enlightenment thought via
the Renaissance and clandestine culture, and ultimately
overthrew political Christendom and shaped the world and
the controversies of modernity and postmodernity. This legacy is
the subject of the following homepage and its linked
bibliography and resources.
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The banner montage attempts to
distill the spirit / essence of the crosscurrents
of the Enlightenment with each figure and image
reminding of a long and clandestine
tradition of free inquiry and universal
ethics with a host of participants (most
long forgotten) going back 2,600 years
rebelling against the various dominant
orthodoxies and hegemonies of established
thought and power. The images are
arranged primarily conceptually with only a slight
nod to chronology (from left to right):
Historical work on women luminaries of the Enlightenment is very incomplete. Here we include a sampling of three great philosophes, whose lives essentially spanned the Enlightenment epoch.
Also
very incomplete is the history of
Indigenous America (map
of Native North America) and
global African influences upon the
emergence of Enlightenment. The
Haudenosaunee Iroquois Confederation
/ League of Nations (link)
& their Great
Law of Peace (~1100 CE) which
included I. Narrative, II.
Constitution, & III. Ceremonies
(link),
practiced a form of federal
democracy for centuries (cf. 1890 Cayuga
version manuscript), which is
in stark contrast to the imperial
Hittite-Assyrian suzerainty
covenants culturally-appropriated
into the Abraham religions. Both the
'American Indian federal
democracy treaty legacy' and
the 'Ancient Near Eastern (ANE)
Suzerainty imperial treaty
covenantalism' are cited as
entries and contrasted in the Select
Bibliography
below. On the Nature of morality,
see also the entry on the Euthyphro
Dialogue (~380 BCE) below. We
will be adding more data on Native
American influence on the
Enlightenment.
For a larger version link to Map of Native North America:
Below: A map of the ancient Iroquois Confederation / League of Nations as it was represented in 1882 (link; cf. link; federal democracy ~600 years prior, a constitutional law debt finally acknowledged by the US Senate in 1988: https://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/hconres331.pdf). American Indian influence before and during the long 18th century: NY Governor William Burnett with Indian leaders (1721, cf. link), & later on the Framers: Franklin, Madison, Washington, Adams, and Jefferson (link; cf. Kickenbird, 1987; Miller, 2015 cited below). The Haitian Revolution of slave self-liberation (1791-1804); among others the great Haitian revolutionary leader, Francois-Dominique Toussaint L'Ouverture (1743-1803) who helped bring the Radical Enlightenment values of the French Revolution home to Santo Domingo; values eventually permeating the Global South; cf. the vast scholarship of CLR James, 1936; Frantz Fanon, 1952; 1959; 1961; 1964; 2015; cited below). The long war between the Radical Enlightenment and the Moderate Enlightenment (see below) is manifest not only in how Radical ideas influenced the US Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, but also how reactionary Moderate and even Counter-Enlightenment tendencies influenced the same: Horne (2014). The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States (New York) cited below. The history of Enlightenment and its many enemies is still being made and written. A rebellion and revulsion
against early modern European imperialism
began among figures in the Radical
Enlightenment, just as indigenous and
foreign cultures had been used to critique
European Christendom and l'Ancien Regime. Part of this was
inspired by the realization that
indigenous morality was often higher and
more universal than
Judeo-Christian-Islamic 'covenantal
morality.' (For more see "Universality: A Copernican
Revolution in Morality" below, and
in forthcoming work on this
website).
To be added in forthcoming sections:
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(6th-3rd c BCE, 10th-12th c CE, 1650-1815) ~ Greek Ionian, Arab-Islamic, Indigenous American, Radical Renaissance precursors, the Enlightenment (see chronology) |
Free critical inquiry & expression impact culture & society, provoke reaction |
Philosophy, science, religion: Controversy & contest over the meaning of God—traditional, moderate Deist, radical Deist-monist, & debates over ontology-metaphysics |
Scientific Revolution & Enlightenment: Seeking a Natural Cosmology / World-view, and to categorize and organize human knowledge |
Enlightenment & Political Revolution: The fight for Universality, Rights of Humankind & Democracy / Brotherhood |
New theories of origins of law & social contract: Society & legal trends in upheaval with the rise of early modernity in Europe & America |
Luminaries, history & philosophy of history, literature as societal dialectics |
Crosscurrents I (1650-1815): Two Enlightenments & a Counter-Enlightenment, Philosophes & Anti-Philosophes |
|
(History of Cosmology) |
"Enlightenment is man's release from
his self-incurred immature dependence. Immature
dependence is man's inability to make use of his
understanding without direction from another.
Self-incurred . . . when its cause lies not in lack
of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to
use it without direction from another. Sapere
aude! [Dare to know!] 'Have courage to use
your own reason!'—that is the motto of
enlightenment. . . . Everywhere there is restriction
on freedom. . . . If we are asked, 'Do we now
live in an enlightened age?' the answer is, 'No,'
but we do live in an age of enlightenment [—a process ongoing]."
—Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Was
ist Aufklarung? 1784.
|
|
Roots |
Major
historical Events |
Key
Works (linked) |
Developments
in Arts & Sciences |
Paleo- lithic |
Summarized in the
History of Cosmology (link);
Ch. I. From Mythos to Cosmos (~3.3 Mya - ~11.7 kya section). |
||
6th-3rd
cent. BCE |
Greek
(Ionian-Melitan) Enlightenment |
Links to surviving documents will be added here. | Summarized in greater detail in the accompanying History of Cosmology Ch. I Mythos to Cosmos. |
9th-12th cent. CE |
Arab-Islamic
Enlightenment |
Links to
available documents will be added here.
|
Being added in Ch.
I Mythos to Cosmos; Partial listing:
|
Year |
Major
historical Events |
Key
Works (linked) |
Developments
in Arts & Sciences |
1600 |
1582: Il
Candelajo (Candelier; a play, link) 1584: De l'Infinito Universo e Mondi (link) 1588: De la Causa, Principio e Uno (link) |
Bruno's Il
Canelajo forecast the idea of 'Enlightenment' His 1584 & 1588 works introduced (Epicurean) monism —Roman Inquisition burns Giordano Bruno to death |
|
1603 |
Johannes Bayer: Uranometria (link expanded edition) |
Artistic-scientific
mapping of the visible starry Universe |
|
1610 |
Galileo turns a
telescope on the heavens (January 1610): —> Mountains on the Moon & —> 4 moons of Jupiter: Io, Ganymede, Callisto, Europa —> And the gibbous phases of Venus: (Aristarchan-)Copernican
Revolution
|
||
1618-1648 |
Thirty Years' War |
Indecisive outcome
& horrific cost led many to question providence in these religious conflicts in Europe |
|
1620 |
Francis Bacon: Novum Organum Scientarum (link) |
||
1625 |
Hugo Grotius: de Jure Belli ac Pacis (link) |
||
1632 |
Galileo Galilei: Dialogo Sopra i Due Massimi Sistemi del Mondo (autograph; link); Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (link) |
Master comparison
between the Ptolemaic & Copernican cosmologies (cf. history of cosmology, ch. I) |
|
1633 |
Roman Inquisition
condemns Galileo |
||
1635 |
Académie Française
founded |
||
1637 |
René Descartes: Discours de la Méthode (link) Les Météores (link) La Dioptrique (link) La Géométrie (link) |
Descartes published
these instead of his larger planned Discourse on the World, abandoned after the Galileo condemnation; Descartes develops Cartesian or analytical geometry (algebraic analyticity applied to geometry) |
|
1641 |
René Descartes: Meditationes de Prima Philosophia (link) |
||
1642-1651 |
English Civil War |
||
1644 |
René Descartes: Principia Philosophiae (index Latin) |
||
1651 |
Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan (link) |
||
1656 |
Christiaan Huygens: De Motu Corporum ex Percussione: Concerning the Motion of Colliding Bodies (publ. posthumously 1607; Engl. link) |
Correct physical
theory of elastic collisions |
|
1657-67 |
Florentine Sciences Academy (Cimento) founded | ||
1660 |
Restoration of
monarchy in England |
||
1661 |
Johannes Bayer:
expanded Uranometria (link) |
12
southern constellations added from explorers'
accounts of the southern starry skies (cf. history of cosmology, ch. I) |
|
1664-1665 |
Comets controversy |
||
1666 |
Académie des
Sciences founded |
||
1667 |
Observatoire de
Paris founded; von Leeuwenhoek discovers sperm |
||
1668 |
Christiaan Huygens:
'De motu corporum ex mutuo impulsu' read to the Royal Society (autographs, 1669) |
Koerbagh dies in
Amsterdam prison |
|
1670 |
Frederik de Wit: Planisphærium Cœleste (link; cf. link) Benedict de Spinoza: Tractatus Theologicus Politicus (link) |
de Wit's planisphere
included the ancient Greek constellations plus the 12 new ones by J. Bayer (1661), & a summary of the competing cosmological models. |
|
1672 |
Dutch "True Freedom"
overthrown |
||
1672-1678 |
Franco-Dutch War |
||
1673 |
Christiaan Huygens: Horologium Oscillatorium (link; Engl. link) |
||
1675 |
Lucy Hutchinson:
Dedicated her translation of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura (cf. link) |
||
1677 |
Benedict de Spinoza
(post-humus): Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata (link) |
||
1678 |
Richard Simon: Histoire Critique de Vieux Testament (link). |
Spinoza's works
banned. |
|
1682 |
Pierre Bayle: Pensées Diverse sur la Comète (link) |
Acta Eruditorum
founded |
|
1683 |
Thomas Creech: T. Lucretius Carus, Of the Nature of Things (in English iambic pentameter rhyme; link) |
Ashmolean Museum
opened |
|
1685 |
Revocation of the
Edict of Nantes |
||
1686 |
Bernard le Bovier de
Fontenelle: Entretiens sur la Pluralité des Mondes (link) Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds (link) |
Popularized the
discoveries and work of Descartes and of Copernicus, as well as helping make widespread the (Brunesian) theory of the plurality of worlds. |
|
1687 |
Sir Isaac Newton: Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (link) De Motu Corporum (Liber Primus; link) |
Extended the light
of physical law across the cosmos, (cf. history of cosmology, ch. I) |
|
1688 |
Glorious Revolution
in England |
||
1689 |
John Locke: Essay Concerning Human Understanding (link) |
||
1690 |
Williamite conquest
of Ireland |
Anne Conway: Principia Philosophiae Antiquissimae et Recentissimae (1692 English link) Christiaan Huygens: Traité de la Lumière (link) John Locke: Two Treatises of Government (link) |
Conway's original
philosophy of ontological monism; Huygens' wave theory of light, prior to Newtonian corpuscular theory of light: Quantum theory incorporates both the wave conception (wavelength & frequency) as well as the corpuscular in the photon going beyond classic electromagnetism to electron-photon field perturbations (QFT; 20th century) |
1691 |
Balthasar Bekker: A World Bewitched (link) |
||
1692 |
Boyle lecture series
begins |
||
1693 |
Pierre Bayle
dismissed from his teaching post |
||
1694 |
University of Halle
founded |
||
1695 |
Expiration of the
Licensing Act in England |
||
1696 |
John Toland: Christianity not Mysterious (link) |
||
1697 |
Pierre Bayle: Dictionnaire Historique et Critique (link) |
||
1699-1711 |
Leibniz-Newton
Calculus controversy |
||
1700 |
Prussian Academy of
Sciences founded |
||
1702-1713 |
War of the Spanish
Succession |
||
1704 |
Battle of Blenheim |
John Toland: Letters to Serena (link) |
|
1705 |
Samuel Clarke: A
Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God (link) |
||
1706 |
Matthew Tindal:
Rights of the Christian Church Asserted (link) |
||
1710 |
Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz: Theodicy (link) |
||
1711-1712 |
Addison and Steele:
The Spectator (link; volume 1) |
||
1713 |
Peace of Utrecht
ends Louis XIV's wars |
||
1720 |
Sweden's "Age of
Liberty" begins |
||
1721 |
Baron de
Montesquieu: Lettres Persane (link) |
||
1723 |
Wolff expelled from
Prussia |
||
1724 |
Anthony Collins: Discourse of the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion (link) |
St. Petersburg
Academy of Sciences founded. |
|
1725 |
Giambattista Vico: Principij
Scienza di Nuova The New Science (link) |
||
1726 |
Edinburgh Medical
School founded |
||
1726-1728 |
Voltaire's exile in
England |
||
1728-1753 |
Ephraim Chambers: Cyclopædia: or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (link; 2 volumes & supplement; multiple editions) |
||
1729 |
Jean Meslier: Testament
(1729;
1732;
1762) |
||
1732 |
Carolus Linnaeus'
expedition to Lapland |
||
1733-1734 |
Alexander Pope: An Essay on Man (link) |
Written in heroic
couplet this work in light-hearted, sardonic tones described the zeitgeist / l'esprits des temps of the Enlightenment, surreptitiously promoting Radical sentiment |
|
1734 |
Voltaire: Lettres Philosophique (link) |
Capitoline Museum
opens in Rome |
|
1735 |
Carolus Linnaeus: Systema Naturae (link) |
La Condamine sets
out for South America |
|
1736 |
Christian von Wolff: Theologia Naturalis (link [1739]) |
||
1737 |
Göttingen University
founded |
||
1739 |
David Hume: Treatise of Human Nature (link) |
Royal Swedish
Academy founded |
|
1740 |
Gabrielle Émilie,
Marquise de Châtelet: Institutions de Physique (link) |
First to propose the
conservation of total energy, then derived the mass-velocity relation (link) |
|
1742 |
Royal
Danish-Norwegian Academy founded |
||
1743 |
American
Philosophical Society founded |
||
1744 |
Royal Prussian
Academy re-founded in Berlin |
||
1747 |
Julian Offray de la
Mettrie: L'Homme Machine (link) |
The Encyclopédie
project begins |
|
1748 |
Baron de
Montesquieu: De l'Esprit des Loix (link) |
||
1748-1750 |
The journal La
Spectatrice Danoise edited by La Beaumelle in Copenhagen |
||
1749 |
Dennis Diderot: Letter on the Blind (link) |
||
1749-1750 |
Georges-Louis
LeClerc de Buffon: Histoire Naturelle (link; link) |
Voltaire moves to
Berlin |
|
1750 |
Thomas Wright: An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe (link) |
Wright proposed that
other stellar systems exist out there beyond our local stellar system; what we now call galaxies (history of cosmology: ch. I). |
|
1751-1752 |
Abbé Nicolas-Louis
de Lacaille: A catalogue of 9766 stars in the southern hemisphere (1847) |
Abbé de Lacaille
journey of astronomical observations from the Cape of Good Hope |
|
1751-1772 |
d'Alembert; Diderot
(eds.) & many lumières: Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers (17+11 vols.; link) |
||
1753 |
The British Museum
founded |
||
1754-1761 |
David Hume: History of England (link) |
||
1755 |
The Lisbon
Earthquake & the start of Pombal's reforms in Portugal |
Immanuel Kant: Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels (link); Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (link) |
Madrid Royal
Botanical Gardens founded Kant's theory proposed the "island universe" hypothesis for distant nebulosities seen through the telescope, what we now call galaxies (history of cosmology: ch. I). |
1756 |
Voltaire: Essai
sur les Mœurs et l'Esprit des Nations
(Multi-volume history: link) James Ferguson: Astronomy Explained On Sir Isaac Newton's Principles (link) |
Pombal institutes
the Douro Wine Company |
|
1757 |
British seize
Calcutta |
Rupture between
Rousseau and Diderot |
|
1758 |
Claude-Adrien
Helvétius: De l'Esprit (link) |
||
1759 |
Voltaire: Candide
(link;
link) Gabrielle Émilie, Marquise de Châtelet: Principes Mathématiques de la Philosophie Naturelle (transl. Newton's Principia: link) |
Encyclopédie
banned Kew Gardens founded |
|
1761 |
Jean Jacques
Rousseau: La Nouvelle Héloïse (link; link) |
Berlin State Library
founded |
|
1761-1767 |
Danish Royal Arabian
Expedition |
||
1762 |
Jean Jacques
Rousseau: Du Contrat Social, ou Principes du Droit Politique (link) The Social Contract (link; link) |
Cambridge Botanical
Gardend founded |
|
1763 |
Abbé Nicolas-Louis
de Lacaille: Coelum Australe Stelliferum (link) |
Abbé de Lacaille
added 14
new constellations to the southern skies |
|
1767 |
The Jesuits expelled
from Spain & Spanish America |
||
1770 |
|||
1770-1772 |
Struensee's reforms
in Denmark- Norway |
Voltaire: Questions sur l’Encyclopédie (1772; link) |
|
1772-1784 |
Gustav III's reforms
in Sweden- Finland |
||
1773 |
Baron d'Holbach: La
Politique Naturelle (link) |
America's first
public museum founded |
|
1773-1774 |
Diderot's visit to
Russia |
||
1775 | Thomas Paine: African Slavery in America (link) |
||
1774-1776 |
Turgot's failed
reforms in France |
||
1774-1781 |
Charles Messier (link):
Catalogue des Nébuleuses & des Amas d'Étoiles (1771-1774; 1781 scans); Catalogue of Nebulae & Star Clusters (link) |
Charles Messier,
astronomer and comet-hunter, created the first deep sky catalogue of astronomical bodies, significant in the history of cosmology. |
|
1775-1776 |
Start of the
American Revolution |
||
1776 |
Thomas Paine: Common
Sense (link;
link) The American Crisis series (link) US Declaration of Independence (link) Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations (link) |
Thomas Paine,
Abolitionist, social security / old age pension advocate, democratic constitution & human rights advocate, freethinker and Deist. |
|
1776-1783 |
Thomas Paine: The
Crisis (link) |
||
1776-1785 |
Ben Franklin is US
Envoy in Paris |
||
1778 |
Franco-American
alliance |
Batavian Arts and
Science Society founded in Jakarta |
|
1779 |
Fridericianum state
museum founded in Kassel |
||
1780 |
Jeremy Bentham: Introduction to the Principles of Morals (link) |
||
1780-1787 |
Dutch "patriot"
democratic movement |
||
1781 |
Immanuel Kant: The Critique of Pure Reason (link) |
||
1781-1789 |
William Herschel
astronomical discoveries (link): —> Planet Uranus (1781) —> Proper motion of Sun & solar system by stars (1783) —> Model of the Milky Way galaxy (1785) —> Titania & Oberon = moons of Uranus (1787) —> Mimas & Enceladus = moons of Saturn (1789) |
||
1782 |
Joseph II's
Toleration Edict |
||
1784 |
Calcutta's Asiatick
Society of Bengal founded |
||
1785 |
Start of Pantheism
controversy in Germany |
||
1786 |
William Herschel: Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (link) |
||
1788 |
US
Constitution ratified |
Immanuel Kant: The Critique of Practical Reason (link) |
Iroquois 6 nation /
Am. Indian federal
democracy influence on US representative
federalism (Kickenbird,
1987; Miller, 2015; US Senate 1988 acknowledgment). |
1789 |
Start of the French
Revolution |
The Declaration
des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen published
by the revolutionary Assemblée Nationale in Paris:
Freedom of the press in France |
|
1789-1791 |
Erasmus Darwin: The Botanic Garden: Parts I & II (link; cf. link) |
Abolitionist; equal
rights for women; Forerunner of Darwinian evolution by his grandson, Charles Darwin online. |
|
1791 |
C. F. Volney: The
Ruins (link;
link). A radical 'philosophy of history' essay. |
Pantheonization of
Voltaire in Paris |
|
1791-1792 |
Thomas Paine: The Rights of Man; Parts I & II (link; link; link; link; link); |
||
1791-1793 |
Louvre transformed
into a national museum |
||
1792 |
First French
Republic founded |
Mary Wollstonecraft: Vindication of the Right of Woman (link) |
|
1792-1793 |
Condorcet's
attempted constitutional and educational reforms
|
||
1793 |
15-16 February 1793
introduction of Le Plan de Constitution, signed by Le Comité de Constitution: Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis(e) de Condorcet with his wife, the Marquise, Armand Gensonné, Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac, Charles Jean Marie Barbaroux, American Thomas Paine, Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve, Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès or Abbé Sieyès (Le Constitution Girondine; link) |
Marquis(e) de
Condorcet: Plan de Constitution Présenté à la Convention Nationale, 15 fev 1793 (link; link) Constitution presented, 24 juin 1793 (link; link) Jean-François Varlet: Declarations des Droits de l’Homme dans l’état social (link) |
Le Constitution
Girondine = the world's first democratic
constitution (Israel, 2014). Paris National Natural History Museum founded |
1793-1794 |
Terror in France |
Jacobins suppress
press freedom |
|
1794 |
Abolition of slavery
in the French Empire |
Thomas Paine: The Age of Reason (link; link) |
Antoine Lavoisier
guillotined |
1794-1796 |
Erasmus Darwin: Zoonomia (Part I; Part II) |
Erasmus
Darwin, Abolitionist; equal rights for women |
|
1795 |
Batavian Revolution
in the Netherlands |
Marquis de
Condorcet: Esquisse d'un Tableau Historique des Progrès de l'Esprit Humain (link) |
Institut de France
founded |
1796-1799 |
The Triennio of
Napoleonic reforms in northern Italy |
||
1797 |
Thomas Paine: Agrarian Justice (link; link) |
||
1798 |
Napoleon invades
Egypt |
||
1798-1801 |
Institut d'Égypte in
Cairo founded |
||
1799 |
Pierre-Simon,
Marquis de Laplace: Traité de Mécanique Céleste, Vol 1 (link) Traité de Mécanique Céleste, Vol 2 (link) |
Rosetta Stone
discovered |
|
1800 |
Lamarck outlines his
evolutionary theory |
||
1802 |
Napoleon restores
slavery in the French Empire |
Pierre-Simon,
Marquis de Laplace: Traité de Mécanique Céleste, Vol 3 (link) |
Secularization of
the Bavarian State Library |
1803 |
Louisiana Purchase
by Jefferson |
Erasmus Darwin: The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society (link) |
|
1805 |
Pierre-Simon,
Marquis de Laplace: Traité de Mécanique Céleste, Vol 4 (link) Traité de Mécanique Céleste, Vol 5 (1852) |
||
1806-1813 |
Napoleon's
Confederation of the Rhine |
||
1807-1810 |
King Louis
Bonaparte's reform in the Netherlands |
||
1808 |
Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences founded | ||
1808-1813 |
King Joseph's
reforms in Spain |
||
1810 |
The new University
of Berlin opens |
||
1811-1812 |
First Venezuelan
Republic |
||
1814-1815 |
Congress of Vienna |
||
1815 |
Napoleon's 100 days |
||
1817 |
Bentham reveals his radicalization | ||
1819 |
Open of the Prado
Museum in Madrid |
||
1923 |
Pierre-Simon,
Marquis de Laplace: Précis de l'Histoire de l'Astronomie (link) |
||
1824 |
Pierre-Simon,
Marquis de Laplace: Exposition du Système du Monde (link) |
Braille invented;
London College National Gallery founded |
|
1826 |
University College
London founded |
||
1830 |
String of
revolutions in Europe |
||
Legacy |
Major historical Events | Key Works (linked) | Developments in Arts & Sciences |
19th- present |
In
1720s, in the Netherlands, a huge step in
Enlightenment was made by the collaboration of
Amsterdam bookmaker Jean-Frédéric Bernard with
engraver Bernard Picart in the
publication of a multi-volume dictionary of
religion between 1723-1743, Ceremonies et
Coutumes Religieuses de tous les Peuples du
Monde (Amsterdam: J Bernard), indeed "the
first global view of religion" (https://historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=2838)
and cosmopolitan understanding across cultures.
In 1727, the following tableau engraving of
world religions illustrated the spirit of the
dictionary.
US Declaration of
Independence, 04 July 1776 (link);
Declaration des Droits de l'Homme et du
Citoyen, 1789 (link);
Eugene Delacroix, "Liberty Leading the
People" (28 July 1830); Louvre,
Paris.
Historic documents prefiguring and enshrining various aspects of the Enlightenment legacy of universal freedoms and rights:
|
Infernalist
(Hell forever) |
Annihilationist
(Hell until 'debt' paid & eternal death) |
Universalist
(Restoration of all the Universe) |