Enlightenment

Enlightenment, an 18th‐century international philosophical and cultural movement with Paris as its focus. Philosophes such as Voltaire and Montesquieu advocated social improvement through the application of scientific and rational principles to social, economic, and political problems, as well as freedom of conscience and religious toleration.

Enlightenment thought was diffused in Ireland through numerous channels. Growing literacy encouraged a demand for books; Voltaire and Montesquieu were widely read. Social gatherings of intellectuals discussed Enlightenment ideas. Travellers from Ireland to the Continent met philosophes. ( Bishop Hervey made a favourable impression on Voltaire.) Presbyterian ministers and sons of Ulster businessmen who attended universities in Scotland, and Irish Catholic priests who studied in Paris, were thereby exposed to the Scottish and French Enlightenments respectively.

The Enlightenment most clearly affected Irish thinking in the areas of economic development and of the architectural and visual arts. In the former, the Royal Dublin Society and other bodies advocated economic progress on the basis of Enlightenment principles of agricultural reform and the reduction of trade barriers. In the latter, practitioners embraced the doctrine that artistic creation should enhance ‘civilized’ living and display moral purpose. The expansion of Dublin and other towns, and the construction of large country houses such as Russborough and Florence Court, provided opportunities for town planners, architects, painters, sculptors, and other artists to put Enlightenment aesthetics into practice.

The question of religious toleration was more problematic—even Voltaire regarded the penal laws as necessary to check the potentially oppressive Catholic church—and the effects of the Enlightenment in this regard were ambivalent. The ‘Protestant ascendancy’ generally responded positively to the Enlightenment in its economic and artistic spheres, but supported the civil and religious disabilities under which Catholics and dissenters lived. At the same time, the Enlightenment stimulated calls for toleration, as a matter of principle, from Catholic and dissenting intellectuals who turned for inspiration increasingly to the works of Rousseau and the socio‐political ideas surrounding American independence. Much Irish radicalism of the 1780s and 1790s derived from such late Enlightenment thought.

In its totality the influence of the Enlightenment was diverse and complex. Although scholars agree that it manifested itself in Ireland, they are less sure that there developed a specifically ‘Irish’ Enlightenment with ‘national’ features. The Enlightenment made little impact upon Trinity College, Dublin, and it is debatable how much of the literature or music of Ireland during this period can be regarded as ‘enlightened’. Much more research is required before a comprehensive assessment can be attempted.

Bibliography

Porter, R., and Teich, M. (eds.), The Enlightenment in National Context (1981)
Yolton, J. W., et al. (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to the Enlightenment (1991)

David Sturdy