Enlightenment: Did you mean...?

A 1747 painted portrait by Pierre Allais of Madame Marie Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin (1699-1777), famous as a Parisian salon host. (Private collection)

A portrait by the French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon of Francois-Marie Arouet or Voltaire (1694-1778), a French philosopher and historian. It was finished around the year 1778. White Marble has been used for the sculpture. It is currently...

An oil-on-canvas portrait by the Russian painter, Dmitry Grigorievich Levitzky of the French Philosopher, Denis Diderot (1713-1784). It was painted in 1773.

A c. 1710 portrait painting by Nicolas de Largillière of Madame Anne Thérèse de Marganat de Courcelles, Marquise de Lambert (1647-1733), a pioneer of the Parisian salon. (Musée Carnavalet, Paris)

A c. 1769 oil-on-canvas portrait by the French painter, Jean-Honoré Fragonard of Denis Diderot (1713-1784 CE), a French philosopher.

Last time we learned about the Enlightenment, and the philosophers and thinkers whose ideas would shape governance for hundred of years. This week, we're learning how monarchs across Europe were influenced by those ideas. Adoption of Enlightenment...

Ulrich Lehner’s The Inner Life of Catholic Reform: From the Council of Trent to the Enlightenment came into fruition after Lehner published several works on the Catholic Enlightenment, which he defines as a “variety of actors within the fold...

Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world, originating in Central Asia and the Indus Valley, still practiced in the present day. The term Hinduism is what is known as an exonym (a name given by others to a people, place, or concept) and...

René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French mathematician, natural scientist, and philosopher, best known by the phrase 'Cogito ergo sum' ('I think therefore I am'). He published works on optics, coordinate geometry, physiology, and cosmology...

A mandala (Sanskrit for “circle”) is an artistic representation of higher thought and deeper meaning given as a geometric symbol used in spiritual, emotional, or psychological work to focus one's attention. The image first appears in India...