Enlightenment Philosophy

The Philosophy for a New Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment was a cultural movement beginning in the late 17th century, which emphasized reason and individualism, and was opposed to superstition and intolerance. Its purpose was to reform society using reason, to challenge ideas grounded in tradition and faith, and to advance knowledge through the scientific method. By promoting scientific thought, skepticism, and intellectual interchange, a revolutionary new way of thinking developed, advancing the idea that rational thought begins with clearly stated principles, uses correct logic to arrive at conclusions, tests the conclusions against evidence, and then revises the principles in the light of the evidence.

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The Enlightenment thinkers of the age developed the philosophical foundation and doctrine for:

• the concept of humanity as beings of free will, who can choose their own values, achieve their own goals, and control their own existence;
• the individual right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness;
• the separation of state and religious power from the natural rights of an individual;
• the equality of all people before the law, regardless of race, gender, religion, social status, or previous condition of servitude; and
• the advance of society through knowledge and scientific inquiry.

The goal of Restore Reason is nothing more nor less to than to see the world set free in our lifetime from the plague of irrational philosophy, and to see the dawn of a new Age of Enlightenment.

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The Nine Objective Branches of Science

1. Logic: reasoning, non-contradictory identification
2. Functional Biology: physiology, medicine, health, fitness, martial arts
3. Sociology: law, ethics, economics, history, politics, cognitive ability
4. Communication: reading, writing, internal, external, media
5. Mathematics: algebra, geometry, statistics
6. Cosmology: planetary science, astronomy
7. Cellular Biology: biochemistry, evolution, taxonomy
8. Chemistry: materials, chemical reactions
9. Physics: thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, light, gravity, space-time

What is Philosophy?

Quite literally, the term "philosophy" means, "love of wisdom." In a broad sense, philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other.

The New Age of Enlightenment
VS
The Dark Ages

There are five major branches of philosophy:

• Metaphysics, which is concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of existence, and the world that encompasses it;
• Epistemology, which is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge;
• Ethics, which is concerned with the choices and actions that determine the purpose and course of one's life;
• Aesthetics, which deals with the nature of art, beauty, and taste; and
• Politics, which deals with the principles of a proper social system.

Five Branches of Philosophy

The philosophy for the new Age of Enlightenment is based on Objective Reality, Reason, and the morality of Rational Self-Interest (meaning living one's life by the life affirming values of Reason, Purpose, Self-Esteem and Romantic Love), which inevitably leads to the Overhumanism in aesthetics, to Capitalism & Federalism in politics, and to the rational outcomes of Truth, Freedom, Beauty, and Romance (i.e., the pro-life reality of a "benevolent universe").

The goal of Enlightenment philosophy is a rational society based on the principles of individual rights, private property, non-aggression, and unregulated free trade - a free mind and a free economy being the corollaries of a rational society.

Enlightenment Philosophy

Enlightenment philosophy stands in stark contradiction to the Dark Age philosophies that preceded it. Dark Age philosophies are based on Mysticism, Faith, and the morality of Altruism (meaning living one's life by the life denying values of Faith, Servitude, Self-Sacrifice, and Chastity), which inevitably leads to Determinism in aesthetics, to Socialism & Statism in politics, and to the emotional and irrational outcomes of Distortion, Coercion, Mediocrity, and Indifference (i.e., the anti-life reality of a "malevolent universe").

The goal of Dark Age philosophy is an irrational society based on the principles of egalitarianism, public property, involuntary servitude, and economic restriction - faith and force being the corollaries of a irrational society.

Dark Age Philosophy

The only question it is necessary to ask yourself concerning your own philosophy of life is not whether you have one but rather whether you chose it consciously or unconsciously.

A set of values accepted by choice becomes a code of morality. The philosophical choices we are all faced with on a daily basis are:

Objective Reality
VS
Mysticism
(Metaphysics)

Objective Reality is the acceptance that everything that exists in the universe is physical, and is composed of matter, energy, or a combination of both; that existence, reality, the external world is what it is independent of human consciousness, independent of anyone's knowledge, judgment, faith, beliefs, feelings, hopes, wishes, or fears; that facts are facts; that to exist is to be something, to have an identity and a nature, and things cannot act in contradiction to their nature; that A is A — things are what they are; that everything happens for a reason, and for every effect there is a specific cause.

Compared to Mysticism, which is the acceptance of allegations without evidence or proof, either apart from or against the evidence of one’s senses and one’s reason. Mysticism is the claim to some non-sensory, non-rational, non-definable, non-identifiable means of knowledge, such as “instinct,” “intuition,” “revelation,” "feeling," or any form of “just knowing.”

Reason
VS
Faith
(Epistemology)

Reason is the faculty that perceives, identifies, and integrates that material provided by human senses. Reason is the implementation of knowledge based on observation, forming concepts (i.e., the mental integration of two or more units which are isolated by a process of abstraction and united by a specific definition) according to the actual (measurable) relationships among concretes, and using concepts according to the rules of logic.

Compared to Faith, which is the blind acceptance of certain ideas, induced by feeling in the absence of any evidence or proof. A more accurate description of Faith is: a devise of the imagination.

Rational Self-Interest
VS
Altruism - Self-Sacrifice
(Ethics/Morality)

An individual must live for their own sake, with the achievement of their own Rational Self-Interest and happiness as the moral purpose of their lives — there is no conflict of interest between men and women who do not desire the unearned, who do not make sacrifices or accept them, and who deal with one another as traders, giving value for value.

The ethics of Rational Self-Interest (also known as Individualism) is based on the pro-life reality of a "benevolent universe". A “benevolent universe” does not mean that the universe feels kindly to human beings or that it is out to help them achieve their goals. No, the universe is neutral; it simply is; it is indifferent. A human being must care about and adapt to the universe, not the other way around. But reality is “benevolent” in the sense that if a human being does adapt to it — i.e., if they think, value, and act rationally, then they can (and barring accidents they will) achieve their values and goals. They will, because those values and goals are based on reality.

Compared to the basic principle of Altruism, which is that men and women have no right to exist for their own sake, that service to others is the only justification of their existence, and that Self-Sacrifice is their highest moral duty, virtue and value. Do not confuse Altruism with kindness, good will or respect for the rights of others. These are not primaries, but consequences, which, in fact, Altruism makes impossible. The irreducible primary of Altruism, the basic absolute, is Self-Sacrifice — which means: self-immolation, self-abnegation, self-denial, self-destruction; i.e., the self as the standard of evil, the selfless as the standard of the good.

The ethics of Altruism is based on the anti-life reality of a “malevolent universe”. A "malevolent universe" is the theory that human beings are, by their very nature, helpless and doomed — that success, happiness, achievement are impossible to them — that emergencies, disasters, catastrophes are the norm of life and that the primary goal for a human being is to combat them.

Overhumanism
VS
Determinism
(Aesthetics)

Overhumanism is the conceptual model of men and women as erotic and heroic beings of free will, with their own happiness as the moral purpose of their lives, productive achievement as the noblest activity, beauty and sensuality as expressions of the self-esteem, and reason as their only absolute.

Compared to Determinism, which is the theory that everything that happens in the universe — including every thought, feeling, and action of mankind — is necessitated by previous factors, so that nothing could ever have happened differently from the way it did, and everything in the future is already pre-set and inevitable. Every aspect of a persons life and character, in this view, is merely a product of factors that are ultimately outside their control.

Capitalism & Federalism
VS
Collectivism
(Politics)

Capitalism is the social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned. The recognition of individual rights entails the banishment of physical force from human relationships; in other words, individual rights can only be violated by means of force. In a capitalist society, no person or group may initiate the use of physical force against others. The only function of the government, in such a society, is the task of protecting individual rights, i.e., the task of protecting individuals from physical force; the government acts as the agent of every individuals right of self-defense, and may use force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use.

Federalism is a system of government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent political units (such as states or provinces). Federalism is a system based upon democratic rules and institutions in which the power to govern is shared between national and provincial/state governments, creating what is often called a federation.

Compared to Collectivism, which is the system that upholds the existence of a mystical and imperceptible social organism, while denying the reality of perceived individuals — a view which implies that human senses are not a valid instrument for perceiving reality. Collectivism maintains that an elite endowed with special mystical insight should rule mankind — which implies the existence of an elite source of knowledge, a fund of revelations inaccessible to logic and transcending the mind. Collectivism denies that men and women should deal with one another by voluntary means, settling their disputes by a process of rational persuasion; it declares that mankind should live under the reign of physical force (as wielded by the dictator of the omnipotent state) — a position which jettisons reason as the guide and arbiter of human relationships.

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Age of Enlightenment Timeline

1. The Humanist Revolution (1268): The Renaissance was specifically the rebirth of reason, the liberation of man’s mind, the triumph of rationality over mysticism—a faltering, incomplete, but impassioned triumph that led to the birth of science, of individualism, of freedom. The intellectual basis of the Renaissance was humanism, which was derived from the rediscovery of classical Greek philosophy, such as that of Protagoras, who said, that "Man is the measure of all things." This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture and literature. The Renaissance represented a rebirth of the Aristotelian spirit. The results of that spirit are written across the next two centuries, which men describe, properly, as the Age of Reason and the Age of Enlightenment. The results include the rise of modern science; the rise of an individualist political philosophy (the work of John Locke and others); the consequent spread of freedom across the civilized world; and the birth of the freest country in history, the United States of America. The great corollary of these results, the product of men who were armed with the knowledge of the scientists and who were free at last to act, was the Industrial Revolution, which turned poverty into abundance and transformed the face of the West. The Aristotelianism released by Aquinas and the Renaissance was sweeping away the dogmas and the shackles of the past. Reason, freedom, and production were replacing faith, force, and poverty. The age-old foundations of statism were being challenged and undercut.
2. The Scientific Revolution (1482): The emergence of modern science, and the developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry, that transformed views of society and nature.
3. The Libertine Revolution (1687): The thinkers who developed the philosophical foundations for an individual's right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness, advocated for the separation of state and religious power from the natural rights of an individual, and promoted the advance of society through knowledge and scientific inquiry. Erotic prints and books (oddly referred to as "philosophy books" as a means to hide the true nature of these underground and forbidden works) were used to promote an individual's right to freedom and pleasure free from government or religious restraint, and as a medium of social criticism and satire, targeting the monarchy, the church, and the general attitudes of repression. Also gave birth to a "literature of ideas" promoting the concept of Man as a being of free will, and dealing with imaginative content such as futuristic settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life, and used as a framework to explore politics, identity, desire, morality, social structure, and other literary themes.
4. The Industrial Revolution (1760): The attempt to throw off government control of the economy, and the birth of the modern entrepreneur. Science is given a practical expression through technological innovation, which is marketed and sold to the consumer to improve their lives. Worker's move away from the farm and into the factory, driven by a desire to improve their own lives and the promise of better wages.
5. The Federalist Revolution (1765): Federalism is the system of government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent political units. The American Revolution began  as a protest against taxation without representation, evolving into the natural right of a people to remove themselves from tyrannical government control, and culminating in America's thirteen original states seceding from the British Empire. The ratification and practical expression of a new kind of government based on separating government and religious power from the natural right of an individual and limiting the governments ability to intrude on an individual's right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness.
6. The Romantic Revolution (1783): Romanticism brought the primacy of values to art, an element that had been missing in the stale, arid, and third-rate repetitions of Classical art that was common at the time. Values are the source of emotions, and a great deal of emotional intensity was projected in the work of the Romantics and in the reactions of their audiences, as well as a great deal of color, imagination, originality, excitement and all the other consequences of a value-oriented view of life. This emotional element was the most easily perceivable characteristic of the new movement and it was taken as its defining characteristic, without deeper inquiry. Such issues as the fact that the primacy of values in human life is not an irreducible primary, that it rests on a human beings faculty of free will, and, therefore, that the Romantics, philosophically, were the champions of free will (which is the root of values) and not of emotions (which are merely the consequences), were issues to be defined by philosophers, who defaulted in regard to aesthetics as they did in regard to every other crucial aspect of the nineteenth century. The still deeper issue, the fact that the faculty of reason is the faculty of free will, was not known at the time, and the various theories of free will were for the most part of an anti-rational character, thus reinforcing the association of free will with mysticism.
7. The Currency Revolution (1833): President Andrew Jackson denounces central banking as an engine of corruption, and refuses to renew the charter of the Second Bank of the United States, which is followed by a period of runaway inflation, engineered by the bankers themselves. Jackson attempts to counteract this by executive order requiring all Federal land payments be made in gold or silver, which the constitution requires. This produces a minor depression, which only lasts about four years, but recovers into more stable economic growth. During this free banking era, local banks take over the functions of a central bank. This lasts until the Civil War, when a fiat currency (i.e., money that derives its value from government regulation or law), known as the "greenback", was temporarily instituted to finance the war. After the Civil War, Congress reestablishes the metallic standard to pre-war rates. The market price of gold in greenbacks was above the pre-war fixed price requiring deflation to achieve the pre-war price. This was accomplished by growing the stock of money less rapidly than real output, and resulting in the most stable currency in American history.
8. The Secessionist Revolution (1860): A reaction against the federalist revolutions natural right of a people to separate themselves from tyrannical government control, culminating in the War to Prevent Southern Independence (i.e., The Civil War) - the bloodiest war in American history (which, incidentally, had very little to do with slavery, despite what the school books say). The war was carried out to devastating conclusion by a tyrant, who freed himself from constitutional control by suspending the writ of habeus corpus (i.e., the right of an individual to due process of law), which gave him the power to arrest anyone without a trial and hold them in jail indefinitely.
9. The Protectionist Revolution (1890): A reaction against the industrial, federalist, and currency revolutions attempt to eliminate government control of the economy, and limit the governments ability to overspend. A policy of restraining trade between countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow (according to proponents) fair competition between imports and goods and service produced domestically, is instituted. Fair competition regulation between domestic companies is also instituted. A central banking system (i.e., the Federal Reserve Bank) is rechartered, a federal income tax is instituted, and the gold standard is abandoned, allowing the government to expand exponentially through deficit spending.
10. The Sexual Revolution (1960): A social movement brought about by the technical innovation of the pill as a popular form of contraception. A reaction against the traditional codes of social behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world, including the normalization of premarital sex, pornography, and homosexuality, and the increased acceptance of sex outside traditional monogamous heterosexual relationships. 
11. The Investor Revolution (1974): Employee pension plans change from defined benefit plans (i.e., a payout at retirement based on a set formula) to defined contribution plans (i.e., you only get out what you put in and your employer matches), turning every working employee into an investor, and making them responsible for their own financial education and future.
12. The Internet Revolution (1980): The Internet makes possible the practical implementation of the individual right to free expression a fact, not a theory, and has a revolutionary impact on culture and commerce, including the rise of near-instant communication by electronic mail, instant messaging, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone calls, two-way interactive video calls, and the World Wide Web with its discussion forums, blogs, social networking, and online shopping sites. The Internet continues to grow, driven by ever greater amounts of online information, commerce, entertainment, and social networking.

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Notable Rational Thinkers

• Francis Bacon: established and popularized inductive methodologies for scientific inquiry
• Pierre Bayle: advocated for the separation of faith and reason
• William Blake: author of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, a seminal work of Romantic poetry and visual art.
• Sir Richard Francis Burton: best-known achievements include an unexpurgated translation of The Book of the One Thousand and One Nights, and bringing the Kama Sutra to publication in English
• Lord Byron: leading English poet celebrated for living a life of scandalous excess and author of the short lyric She Walks in Beauty
• John Cleland: author of Fanny Hill, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, which daringly portrayed women as sexual beings
• Marquis de Sade: author of 120 Days of Sodom and Juliette, and a proponent of extreme freedom, unrestrained by morality, religion, or law
• Denis Diderot: edited an encyclopedia of Enlightenment thinking
• Benjamin Franklin: leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat - earned the title of "The First American"
• John Locke: author of Two Treatise on Government, which advocated for the individual right to life, liberty and property
• Victor Hugo: author of Les Miserable, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Ninety-Three
• Thomas Jefferson: principal author of the Declaration of Independence
• Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli: author of The Prince and Discourses on the First Ten Book of Titus Livy
• James Madison: hailed as "Father of the Constitution" for being instrumental in drafting the United States Constitution and as the key champion and author of the United States Bill of Rights
• Franz Mesmer: sought to treat disease through Animal Magnetism, an early therapeutic application of hypnotism
• Ludwig von Mises: author of Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, which presents the case for laissez-faire capitalism based on ration human decision-making
• Montesquieu: advocated for the separation of state powers through executive, legislative and judicial branches of government
• Isaac Newton: author of Principia Mathematica, which established modern physics and set the foundation for the industrial revolution
• Thomas Paine: author of Common Sense and The American Crisis, which encouraged American patriots to revolt and secede from the British Empire, and The Age of Reason, which advocated deism, promoted reason and free thought, and argued against institutionalized religion.
• Ayn Rand: author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and advocate for individualism and laissez-faire capitalism
• Murray Rothbard: author of For a New Liberty, founder and leading theoretician of anarcho-capitalism, a staunch advocate of historical revisionism, and a central figure in the twentieth-century American libertarian movement
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau: author of The Social Contract, which argued that the power to make laws should be in the hands of the people
• Mary Shelley: author of Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus, which established the genre of romantic realism ("a literature of ideas" - better known today as "science fiction")
• Percy Bysshe Shelley: author of Queen Mab, a philosophical poem with the aim to show that reform and improvement in the lot of mankind were possible
• Adam Smith: documented the principles of capitalism in The Wealth of Nations, which  touches upon such broad topics as the division of labor, productivity and free markets
• Baruch Spinoza: advocated for the separation of church and state
• Jules Verne: hailed as the "Father of Science Fiction", and author of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island
• Voltaire: advocated for the separation of state and individual rights
• Richard Wagner: composer known primarily for his four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), and for his final opera Parsifal
• Mary Wollstonecraft: author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and advocate for the separation of state from marriage and other sexual matters
• William Wordsworth: launched the romantic age of poetry in English literature with the publication of Lyrical Ballads

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