Ambientes desencantados: o século XVIII e o reino das racionalidades

Abstract

In order to understand the complexity of the 18th century, also known as the Century of Enlightenment, we cannot avoid a punctual appreciation, though incomplete, of the scientific and philosophical production of the 17th century in Europe. The philosophical 18th century is obedient to the 16th-century Aristotelism crisis, and to the advent (in the 17th century) of a Novum organum, a method of investigation of the reality based on a double entry: a) empiricism, represented by the new experimental science introduced by Galileo Galilee (1564-1642), Francis Bacon (1561-1626), and by the discoveries made by Copernicus (1473-1543), Jean Kepler (1571-1630), and Isaac Newton (1642-1727); and b) René Descartes (1596-1650)’s idealistic rationalism. Therefore, this paper is about The Enlightenment, its promises and its disenchantment with the ultimate target of rationality. Key words: The Enlightenment; Environment; Science.