Abstract
?The Enlightenment'', a philosophical movement preceding the French Revolution is hard to define as it is an amalgamation of different fields. A concise definition was suggested by Anchor which states that "it can be characterized roughly as a dedication to human reason, science and education as the best means of building a stable society of free men on earth." The idea of a ?universal free society' reached by reason, science and education is indeed characteristic of the philosophers' ideas. However, I think a more relevant definition is to be found in Roche's ?France in the Enlightenment' which defines it as "the triumph of man, belief in progress, expansion of concrete as well as philosophical individualism, a new material independence that changed people's understanding of nature and society". All these concepts influenced people to think in terms of equality, natural rights, freedom from coercion, non-conformism, relativism in religion and morality and primacy of the human reason.
