Abstract
The Eighteenth-Century is commonly considered as the century of Enlightenment. What sense could we give to that notion of Enlightenment? In the Seventeenth-Century, Enlightenment was linked with faith and fairness of spirit. In the Eighteenth-Century, that notion turned into fairness that should be spread to the entire humanity and consequently make the reason succeed over superstition or intolerance. It also rose up against religious, moral and political oppressions. There was a great faith in science during that century. For Emmanuel Kant and Thomas Paine, Enlightenment was the rise and emancipation of people, through education or the public sphere. The movement of Enlightenment was virulent in all of Europe and especially in France which was its main seat. As a result, this was also the century of great philosophers and thinkers, in France. Thinkers like Voltaire, Rousseau or Montesquieu, often took Great Britain as a model because of its parliamentary monarchy which was more Liberal and tolerant than the French monarchy.
