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This second set of basic changes is often summed up in the idea of an “Age of Enlightenment,” stretching from the middle of the 17th century through the 18th century. This description was familiar to 18th-century thinkers themselves, who saw themselves as bringing the light of science, systematic analysis, and new ideas to the shadowy realms of tradition and ignorance. They expected the “light of reason” to illuminate a path of human progress, clarifying both the ways things worked objectively in the world and the values human beings should rightly hold. Like the idea of society, the Enlightenment directly shaped practical projects, such as the American Revolution and the French Revolution, not least by promoting the belief that human beings could choose the social conditions of their own lives, based on reason rather than simply accepting the institutions they had inherited.

The Enlightenment is a label for a collection of partially separate ideas, such as science, the exercise of individual reason, tolerance of difference, and equality of rights (including notably for women who had previously been excluded from most public life and began in this period the long struggle for equality). The reading in the following text from Immanuel Kant is among the most influential of all accounts of the Enlightenment, but it is a summary written near the end of the Age of Enlightenment – by which time most leading European thinkers considered themselves “enlightened.” Earlier thinkers, such as Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) and René Descartes (1596–1650), had seemed much more revolutionary. When their ideas began to attract a growing range of followers in the 17th century, this was widely understood as a direct challenge to religion. Spinoza, for example, argued there should be tolerance for people who held contrary religious beliefs; many thought this amounted to saying that sinful error should be accepted. Descartes held that the basis for certain knowledge started with human reason (famously, he wrote, “I think therefore I am”). Although he held this was consistent with the biblical notion that God gave human beings the capacity for independent reason, many others thought this was an attack on the authority of the Bible.

Theories, such as those of Spinoza and Descartes, suggested that individuals should think for themselves and that reason was often a better basis for judgment than tradition. These “rationalist” ideas were soon complemented with the “empiricist” idea that evidence for the truth should be found in observations of the material world. Descartes’ contemporary Francis Bacon (1561–1626) had suggested this, but the idea really caught on with the dramatic growth in scientific knowledge that made the 17th century an age of scientific revolution. The father of modern physics, Isaac Newton (1642–1727), was among its most important figures. However, both reason and the search for empirical evidence – the hallmarks of science – were applied immediately not only to physics, chemistry, and medicine but also to the project of understanding social life: that is, how markets worked, what government was best, whether population growth would lead to famine, and so forth.

Throughout the modern era, some religious thinkers have remained uncomfortable with the rise of science. Others have sought to reexamine religious questions in light of science. Both religious thought itself and the place of religion in the world have changed. However, this did not necessarily mean an abandonment of religion. Immanuel Kant himself wrote a book arguing for “religion within the limits of reason alone.” He meant that it was not necessary to rely on mysterious revelations, but rather that the reason with which God had endowed human beings was sufficient. Certainly, many religious leaders disagreed, but most religious leaders did place more emphasis on the exercise of individual reason.

A variety of other social changes helped the Enlightenment spread its message of reason and reliance on empirical evidence. One of the most important was the printing press, which allowed a much wider distribution of books. With this came growth in literacy and education, which helped the rise of reason. Already in the era of the Protestant Reformation, more Christians had begun to read the Bible for themselves, and to think for themselves about its meaning, that is, do not simply rely on the teachings of religious authorities. This same sort of emphasis on individual reason was extended more widely to more questions.

The idea of individual rights was grounded largely in the notion that every individual could exercise reason for himself/herself. This was a key basis for the growing claims that women should have equal rights because they too could reason independently (whatever their other physical differences from men). The ideas of “human rights” coupled the emphasis on reason with equality. Because every human being had the capacity for reason, each deserved respect and had basic rights (such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, according to the US Declaration of Independence, or those listed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man by the French Revolutionaries). The American revolutionary hero Thomas Paine wrote famously of the importance of common sense, the age of reason, and the rights of man. This inspired both the idea of independence for America and the idea of creating a democratic government to ensure the independence and freedom of Americans inside the new country. If Paine spoke of the Rights of Man, however, he was quickly answered by Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Wollstonecraft was indignant at the failure to recognize women equally, but she had faith that eventually women’s rights would be recognized because this was, literally, only reasonable.

The example of equal rights for women reminds us that simply declaring rights does not mean effectively realizing them and that there are a variety of influential social forces, besides the exercise of reason. Sociology has been shaped both by the emphasis on independent reason – as sociologists have sought to use logic and evidence to understand society scientifically – and by the effort to understand those other social forces, from emotions to tradition to commitments to family or community or nation to the exercise of power. The Enlightenment encouraged a belief in progress based on the exercise of reason, but while many sociologists have believed in progress, most have also studied the limits or impediments to it and some have questioned whether it is as inevitable as the Enlightenment theorists imagined.

Already in the later years of the Age of Enlightenment, there were questioning voices. Mary Wollstonecraft’s daughter, Mary Shelley, wrote the novel Frankenstein with its theme of a scientist who overreaches himself by seeking to create life. Her work was part of a Romantic movement that complemented and sometimes countered the Enlightenment faith in reason with more emphasis on tradition, emotions, and above all nature. Rousseau was a formative influence on this movement which, not surprisingly, found many of its later leaders among poets and musicians. This too shaped sociology, for the scientific researchers found that the evidence suggested that society was not simply the result of rational decisions by its members.