Editing Age of Enlightenment (section)

====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.]]