a bridge to the 18th century

The term Enlightenment is commonly used to classify the eighteenth century in European history. The ideas of the Enlightenment were spread through printing and bookmaking and spread widely across Europe. The Age of Enlightenment caused people to question everything. One very important philosopher in the Age of Enlightenment was Immanuel Kant.

The 1600s are today referred to as the Renaissance, the literal translation, “rebirth”. A culture of sex, lust and enjoyment was emerging where people wanted to relish their lives and experience new practices that appealed to their wants instead of their needs. The late 1600’s and early 1700’s was a relatively calm period in Britain’s history and therefore fostered innovation. During this time period Britain was excelling economically, the Catholic and Protestant conflicts were fewer and far between and political divergence between the monarch and parliament died down. This environment provided an ideal situation for advancements in science, philosophy and most of all literature;

In chapter one Postman introduces the concept of the "media-metaphor." Simply put, he posits that every civilization 's discourse is limited by the biases of the media it employs. He suggests that an oral culture will speak of the world differently than one that has printed language. One of the prime examples he uses is the primitive technology of smoke signals and the safe assumption that these signals were not used to discuss philosophical arguments (Postman, 1985, 7). “A Cherokee philosopher would run short of either wood or blankets long before he

Postman bases his argument on the belief that public discourse in America, when governed by the epistemology of the printing press, was "generally coherent, serious, and rational" (16) because

Originating in late eighteenth-century Europe, it challenged the Age of Enlightenment’s scientific and rational, objective ideas, and instead promoted the power of individual imagination and subjective experience.

The period of time known as "The Long 18th Century" was what we call the Age of Enlightenment. From the late 1600s to the early 1800s, the world seemed to have a mass epiphany. It started with a few specific characters, such as Rene Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, but it began to spread accross Europe and soon the world. The Enightenment was a period of extreme realism, with people accross the globe beginning to think in ways we would today consider logically. Common principles changed from supernatural to natural. It was a period of time that names itself, because humans were enlightened to reality. Their eyes opened to a better explained world around them. Philosophers argued that the Enlightenment would free humankind from both superstition

The ideas of enlightenment philosophes manifested themselves in a tangible way by influencing the initiation, propositions, and success of revolutionary and political documents of the eighteenth century. Actual revolutions were not just the product of angry founding fathers or bourgeoisie; rather centuries of progressive writers had set the stage for a radical transformation of the western political landscape by chipping away at the ideas that formed the foundation of the “despotism” being rebelled against. The difference between the writings of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, and the writings of the American and French revolutions is action: the revolutions finally gave hands to the voices of the enlightenment: “To the philosophes, the role of philosophy was not just to discuss the world but to change it” (Duiker 461). The commencement, propagation, and evolution of enlightenment thought set the stage for the French and American Revolutions. The

The heart of the Enlightenment lied at the heart of Paris, France. Intellectuals gathered throughout Europe to debate and justify new and old ideas. Gatherings were held to host discussion as reformed concepts spread across Europe though passionate writers and scholars. Traditional beliefs, customs, and conventions were examined during the Enlightenment by these people and the citizens that come to read their papers. Controversy brewed as power-holders and religion met with the power of reason, but these ideas spread through Europe in a variety of methods. For one, the introduction of Denis Diderot’s Encyclopedia, Encyclopédie, sparked curiosity among intellectual readers. With its ample amount of general knowledge in science, the goal was to change the way people

“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”[ ] These words can be applied to the progression of history. Throughout history, there have been many radical thinkers whose ideas, though initially criticized, have become the catalyst of great change. Though, the radical thinkers were met with the criticism and disdain of the people, eventually, their ideas slowly impacted society. The Enlightenment was one of the greatest time periods in history where many ideas and philosophies greatly influenced history as we know it.

It’s no surprise that that 17th and 18th century culture differed greatly from today’s society. The beliefs, philosophy, and scientific theory from that time period have changed a lot over the course of time. Many common ideals from that era are considered ludicrous and bizarre today. One common belief held in 17th century cultures was the dominance of males in society. Men held all the power and played their patriarchal roles as heads of the family, this belief was assumed to be instituted by nature and God. The bible has influenced writers for centuries and it is used by people to justify life choices, and similarly, to point out flaws. The authority held by the Bible in early Britain allowed it to behave as the moral framework for the

Johann Gutenberg is credited for the invention of the printing press, a monumental advancement in technology that changed the world forever. It has been regarded as, “one of the most important inventions in the history of humankind.” What was once a tedious process, became a fast, easy, and cheap way to produce great quantities of books. It granted public access to a wealth of knowledge never seen before. Rapid spread of ideas was the catalyst of social and cultural revolutions, the consequences of which are still apparent today. The printing press can be thought of as the internet of the 15th century, a facilitative mechanism of social, economic, scientific, and religious.

At the end of the seventeenth century a movement that renewed the education, philosophy, and scientific research swept through Europe. The new movement was called “The Enlightenment”. The writers of this period were convinced that they emerged from centuries of darkness and ignorance into a new age enlightened by reason, science and respect for humanity. The most important figures of this movement were the social reformers who with their contributions changed the course of history and served as inspiration for many of the

However, as Innis and Macluhan both highlighted, it is its social implications, such as the emergence of monopolies of knowledge, centralised authorities and uneven distribution of power rather than the aural or written nature that should be the focus of studying oral and written media (Innis, 1990). Because written media requires the capability of reading which is relatively demanding compared with oral media since it takes years to develop, a hierarchy of knowledge is very likely to be created and with it, centralization of power (ibid.). This group of elites tend to dominate social institutions and this dominance tends to further strengthen their status, such as during the Roman Empire when reading was a privileged ability (Hadrill, 1988). Apart from this, in modern times, mechanization resulting from technologies should also take responsibility for monopolies of knowledge as well as the disappearance of innovative ideas by causing “complexity and confusion” (Innis, 1990). This has been, as Innis pointed out, a major problem in Western civilisations today (ibid.). Responsively, many believe that the prevalent use of the Internet allows for free thinking as well as a meaningful way for individuals to gain knowledge. On the one hand, it is a fact that abundant information can be equally accessed and shared on the Internet. The costs of distributing information using the

The essay ends well, with a hopeful answer to a pressing question: “If it is asked ‘do we now live in an enlightened age?,’ the answer is ‘No, but we do live in an age of enlightenment.” Indeed we are yet to reach a position of using our own understanding and to free ourselves from the tutelage. But there are signs to indicate the way to enlightenment and there are fewer obstacles before us

Manovich and Cook created a strong structure for a digital history, however, the two failed to make note of a few critical aspects that compliment and add more depth to this history. Both scholars place too much emphasis on setting a specific beginning to this history. Manovich and Cook, also, fail to incorporate the work of Charles Dogson, otherwise known as Lewis Carroll, into the late-Victorian history, and fail to note the importance of technological developments in creation of the modern digital world.