Editing Age of Enlightenment (section)

===Great Britain===
====England====
{{Further|Georgian era#English Enlightenment}}

The very existence of an English Enlightenment has been hotly debated by scholars. The majority of textbooks on British history make little or no mention of an English Enlightenment. Some surveys of the entire Enlightenment include England and others ignore it, although they do include coverage of such major intellectuals as [[Joseph Addison]], [[Edward Gibbon]], John Locke, Isaac Newton, [[Alexander Pope]], [[Joshua Reynolds]], and [[Jonathan Swift]].<ref>Peter Gay, ed. ''The Enlightenment: A comprehensive anthology'' (1973) p. 14</ref> [[Freethought#United Kingdom|Freethinking]], a term describing those who stood in opposition to the institution of the Church, and the literal belief in the Bible, can be said to have begun in England no later than 1713, when [[Anthony Collins (philosopher)|Anthony Collins]] wrote his "Discourse of Free-thinking," which gained substantial popularity. This essay attacked the clergy of all churches and was a plea for deism.

[[Roy Porter]] argues that the reasons for this neglect were the assumptions that the movement was primarily French-inspired, that it was largely a-religious or anti-clerical, and that it stood in outspoken defiance to the established order.<ref>Roy Porter, "England" in Alan Charles Kors, ed., ''Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment'' (2003) 1:409–15.</ref> Porter admits that after the 1720s England could claim thinkers to equal [[Denis Diderot|Diderot]], Voltaire, or Rousseau. However, its leading intellectuals such as Gibbon,<ref>Karen O'Brien, "English Enlightenment Histories, 1750–c.1815" in {{cite book |editor=José Rabasa |title=The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 3: 1400–1800 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HcVZeiGg4awC&pg=PA518 |year=2012 |location=Oxford, England |publisher=OUP |pages=518–535 |isbn=978-0-19-921917-9}}</ref> [[Edmund Burke]] and [[Samuel Johnson]] were all quite conservative and supportive of the standing order. Porter says the reason was that Enlightenment had come early to England and had succeeded such that the culture had accepted political liberalism, philosophical empiricism, and religious toleration, positions which intellectuals on the continent had to fight against powerful odds. Furthermore, England rejected the collectivism of the continent and emphasized the improvement of individuals as the main goal of enlightenment.<ref>Roy Porter, ''The creation of the modern world: the untold story of the British Enlightenment'' (2000), pp. 1–12, 482–484.</ref>

According to [[Derek Hirst]], the 1640s and 1650s saw a revived economy characterised by growth in manufacturing, the elaboration of financial and credit instruments, and the commercialisation of communication. The gentry found time for leisure activities, such as horse racing and bowling. In the high culture important innovations included the development of a mass market for music, increased scientific research, and an expansion of publishing. All the trends were discussed in depth at the newly established [[English coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th centuries|coffee houses]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hirst |first=Derek |date=1996 |title=Locating the 1650s in England's Seventeenth Century |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24423269 |journal=History |volume=81 |issue=263 |pages=359–383 |doi=10.1111/1468-229X.00016 |jstor=24423269 |issn=0018-2648}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Enlightenment (1650–1800): The English Enlightenment |url=https://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/enlightenment/section2/ |access-date=18 December 2023 |website=SparkNotes |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:AdamSmith.jpg|thumb|left|upright|One leader of the Scottish Enlightenment was [[Adam Smith]], the father of modern economic science.]]

====Scotland====
In the [[Scottish Enlightenment]], the principles of sociability, equality, and utility were disseminated in schools and universities, many of which used sophisticated teaching methods which blended philosophy with daily life.<ref name="Eddy2022" /> Scotland's major cities created an intellectual infrastructure of mutually supporting institutions such as schools, universities, reading societies, libraries, periodicals, museums, and masonic lodges.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Towsey |first1=Mark |title=Reading the Scottish Enlightenment Books and Their Readers in Provincial Scotland, 1750–1820 |date=2010 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-19351-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_uB5DwAAQBAJ}}</ref> The Scottish network was "predominantly liberal [[Calvinism|Calvinist]], Newtonian, and 'design' oriented in character which played a major role in the further development of the transatlantic Enlightenment."<ref name="HermanTwo">A. Herman, ''How the Scots Invented the Modern World'' (Crown Publishing Group, 2001).</ref> In France, Voltaire said "we look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilization."<ref>{{cite book |last=Harrison |first=Lawrence E. |title=Jews, Confucians, and Protestants: Cultural Capital and the End of Multiculturalism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rbqn4RfUMioC&pg=PA92 |year=2012 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |page=92 |isbn=978-1-4422-1964-9}}</ref> The focus of the Scottish Enlightenment ranged from intellectual and economic matters to the specifically scientific as in the work of [[William Cullen]], physician and chemist; [[James Anderson of Hermiston|James Anderson]], [[agronomist]]; [[Joseph Black]], physicist and chemist; and James Hutton, the first modern geologist.<ref name="Denby"/><ref name="Repcheck">J. Repcheck, ''The Man Who Found Time: James Hutton and the Discovery of the Earth's Antiquity'' (Basic Books, 2003), pp. 117–143.</ref>

====Anglo-American colonies====
{{Further|American Enlightenment}}

[[File:Declaration of Independence (1819), by John Trumbull.jpg|thumb|[[John Trumbull]]'s ''[[Declaration of Independence (Trumbull)|Declaration of Independence]]'' imagines the drafting committee presenting its work to the Congress.]]

Several Americans, especially Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, played a major role in bringing Enlightenment ideas to the New World and in influencing British and French thinkers.<ref>Henry F. May, ''The Enlightenment in America'' (1978)</ref> Franklin was influential for his political activism and for his advances in physics.<ref>Michael Atiyah, "Benjamin Franklin and the Edinburgh Enlightenment," ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'' (Dec 2006) 150#4 pp.&nbsp;591–606.</ref><ref>Jack Fruchtman, Jr., ''Atlantic Cousins: Benjamin Franklin and His Visionary Friends'' (2007)</ref> The cultural exchange during the Age of Enlightenment ran in both directions across the Atlantic. Thinkers such as Paine, Locke, and Rousseau all take Native American cultural practices as examples of natural freedom.<ref>Charles C. Mann, ''1491'' (2005)</ref> The Americans closely followed English and Scottish political ideas, as well as some French thinkers such as Montesquieu.<ref>Paul M. Spurlin, ''Montesquieu in America, 1760–1801'' (1941)</ref> As deists, they were influenced by ideas of [[John Toland]] and [[Matthew Tindal]]. There was a great emphasis upon [[liberalism in the United States|liberty]], [[republicanism in the United States|republicanism]], and [[freedom of religion in the United States|religious tolerance]]. There was no respect for monarchy or inherited political power. Deists reconciled science and religion by rejecting prophecies, miracles, and biblical theology. Leading deists included Thomas Paine in ''[[The Age of Reason]]'' and Thomas Jefferson in his short ''Jefferson Bible,'' from which he removed all supernatural aspects.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1272214/The-Founding-Fathers-Deism-and-Christianity |title=The Founding Fathers, Deism, and Christianity |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref>