What was the Enlightenment? When was it?

The Enlightenment, often called the Age of Enlightenment, happened in the eighteenth century (originating in Europe) and was a movement that valued reason as the main authority.  This movement was mainly philosophical and was designed to end the abuses of the government and the church in their corruptions of society.  The exact dates of the Enlightenment are debated but are generally regarded as 1715, which is when King Louis XIV of France died, and 1789, which began the French Revolution.  The general reason why it was called “Enlightenment” is because it left the old ideas and blind beliefs of the past in the dark in order to bring humanity into the light (especially the light of scientific thought and reason).  The ideas from the Enlightenment permeated all aspects of life and its representative authors are Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Hume (among many others).  The great thinkers of the Enlightenment believed in the facts behind science and rationality.  They thought that science could explain most everything in the natural world (including the human world).  The scientific method was to be used to improve each aspect of our society.  The Enlightenment led the way for many of the world’s government revolutions that would follow, not the least of which are the American Revolution and the French Revolution.  In fact, the authors mentioned above inspired many of those revolutionary thinkers.  In these ways, the Enlightenment permeated each aspect of the eighteenth century and most especially philosophy, science, politics, and religion.